Considering budgets, national averages, church size, education and the gender gap, it’s no wonder churches struggle getting it right when it comes to pastor compensation.

By Robert Dilday

It may be one of the most uncomfortable — and sometimes contentious — questions in congregational life: How much should we pay our senior pastor?

Ministers struggle between commitments to a self-sacrificial calling on the one hand and providing for their families on the other. Congregations want to attract capable leaders and keep them, while grappling with declining contributions and tight budgets. And personnel and pastor-search committees find a bewildering array of charts, comparisons and suggestions for ministerial compensation.

“It would be almost impossible to use a meaningful number that could be universally applied,” said Bill Wilson, president of the Center for Congregational Health, citing the wide range of church sizes and financial health, as well as demographic and cultural contexts and ministers’ years of service.

National averages in those surveys range widely — from about $83,000 (not including benefits such as health care insurance and retirement contributions) to about $112,000. But national averages often are less decisive for personnel committees than factors closer to home.

“Many of them simply assume that what they have budgeted from their last minister will suffice,” said Wilson. “When they do a study, they are often surprised by ‘sticker shock,’ especially if they have had a long-tenured staff member. Most ask denominational headquarters to help with this,” or organizations like the National Association of Church Business Administration.

“A few tie it to what local teachers make, or what their cousin in Toledo makes at his church,” he added.

Another common approach is to estimate the average income of families in a church and use that as a basis for the pastor’s compensation, LifeWay Christian Resources President Thom Ranier said in a recent blog post.

Tom Nelson, an evangelical pastor and writer for the Gospel Coalition, noted in many suburban contexts, a pastor’s salary is placed in the same range as the local public high school principal.

Other dynamics also play a role. A church’s size and its income are critical, for obvious reasons. But so is education. The Compensation Handbook for Church Staff suggests pastors with a master’s degree earn 10 to 20 percent more than those with a bachelor’s degree, and a doctorate adds another 15 percent on top of that.

And then there’s gender. Female pastors earn about 20 percent less than male pastors with similar levels of experience and education, according to MMBB Financial Services, formerly the American Baptists’ Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board. And their annual salary increases are about 28 percent less.

Data in the most recent Compensation Handbook indicates the gender pay gap extends to all paid positions in churches. Male employees generally are paid almost 30 percent more than women in similar positions.

“This particular bit of data really baffles me,” Marian Liautaud, an editor for Christianity Today’schurch management team, said in an interview with The Christian Post.

The fact that some churches believe there are biblical restrictions on women serving in some leadership roles doesn’t explain the numbers they’ve studied, Liautaud said, because the pay gap between men and women also is evident in “business-oriented positions,” such as the executive pastor position, she told The Post. “It’s a little disconcerting,” she said.

“There is an element of exploitation,” said Molly Marshall, president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kan. “Women are anxious to serve as pastors. So, they will not negotiate for fair pay. Further, churches who call women are often strapped financially and in decline. Women enter these situations with knowledge that compensation will be meager.”

Church polity also impacts the size of pastors’ salaries. According to a Duke Divinity School study, connectional churches — such as Presbyterian or Lutheran — pay their pastors more than congregational churches, such as Baptist or United Church of Christ.

Although connectional churches often have wealthier members than congregational churches, the Duke study found centralized denominational decision-making just as decisive in keeping pastor salaries higher. By contrast, salaries in self-governing congregations largely are driven by market forces and by supply and demand, the study discovered. In the nation’s largest churches, the free market actually reverses the pattern, and pastor salaries in congregational churches begin to surpass those of connectional ones.

“To attract entrepreneurial clergy, some very large churches are paying entrepreneurial salaries,” the authors of the study wrote.

The bottom line, Ranier said: “Churches that do not do their homework on pastoral compensation tend to underpay their pastors.”

Getting it right — or coming close to it — can be critical to a church’s ability to retain qualified leadership. Ranier acknowledged what often is unspoken — some pastors leave churches because of pay issues.

“You will not likely hear a pastor announce in his resignation that he is leaving because of financial pressures,” Ranier wrote. “The reality is that, for a number of pastors, the issue of compensation is a major push from one church to another, or from the church to a secular vocation. It’s not that the pastor is in his job for the money; it’s that the compensation for his vocation is insufficient to meet his family’s needs.”

Those realities may be responsible for a recent reduction in the stigma historically associated with financial negotiations between a pastoral candidate and a search committee. It’s still “a fine line to walk,” said Wilson, but benefit boards like MMBB Financial Services now provide guides to negotiating pastor compensation.

“Ministers know that transitions are the primary time for making salary adjustments,” Wilson said. “The only real raise most clergy ever get (above cost of living) is when they move. Thus, it is important to negotiate up front if you think there is something missing or inadequate in the package. Congregations often hold back on an offer in the expectation that a counter offer will need to be made. I think that’s unfortunate, but it seems to be normative.”

That said, caution is in order, Wilson added.

“Aggressiveness is never a good thing when it comes to compensation,” he said. “Assertiveness is OK, up to a point. If a congregation senses that a minster is mercenary, they will back away — and should. It’s a fine line between being forthright and being overly concerned with dollars.”

Considering budgets, national averages, church size, education and the gender gap, it’s no wonder churches struggle getting it right when it comes to pastor compensation.

By Robert Dilday

It may be one of the most uncomfortable — and sometimes contentious — questions in congregational life: How much should we pay our senior pastor?

Ministers struggle between commitments to a self-sacrificial calling on the one hand and providing for their families on the other. Congregations want to attract capable leaders and keep them, while grappling with declining contributions and tight budgets. And personnel and pastor-search committees find a bewildering array of charts, comparisons and suggestions for ministerial compensation.

“It would be almost impossible to use a meaningful number that could be universally applied,” said Bill Wilson, president of the Center for Congregational Health, citing the wide range of church sizes and financial health, as well as demographic and cultural contexts and ministers’ years of service.

National averages in those surveys range widely — from about $83,000 (not including benefits such as health care insurance and retirement contributions) to about $112,000. But national averages often are less decisive for personnel committees than factors closer to home.

“Many of them simply assume that what they have budgeted from their last minister will suffice,” said Wilson. “When they do a study, they are often surprised by ‘sticker shock,’ especially if they have had a long-tenured staff member. Most ask denominational headquarters to help with this,” or organizations like the National Association of Church Business Administration.

“A few tie it to what local teachers make, or what their cousin in Toledo makes at his church,” he added.

Another common approach is to estimate the average income of families in a church and use that as a basis for the pastor’s compensation, LifeWay Christian Resources President Thom Ranier said in a recent blog post.

Tom Nelson, an evangelical pastor and writer for the Gospel Coalition, noted in many suburban contexts, a pastor’s salary is placed in the same range as the local public high school principal.

Other dynamics also play a role. A church’s size and its income are critical, for obvious reasons. But so is education. The Compensation Handbook for Church Staff suggests pastors with a master’s degree earn 10 to 20 percent more than those with a bachelor’s degree, and a doctorate adds another 15 percent on top of that.

And then there’s gender. Female pastors earn about 20 percent less than male pastors with similar levels of experience and education, according to MMBB Financial Services, formerly the American Baptists’ Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board. And their annual salary increases are about 28 percent less.

Data in the most recent Compensation Handbook indicates the gender pay gap extends to all paid positions in churches. Male employees generally are paid almost 30 percent more than women in similar positions.

“This particular bit of data really baffles me,” Marian Liautaud, an editor for Christianity Today’schurch management team, said in an interview with The Christian Post.

The fact that some churches believe there are biblical restrictions on women serving in some leadership roles doesn’t explain the numbers they’ve studied, Liautaud said, because the pay gap between men and women also is evident in “business-oriented positions,” such as the executive pastor position, she told The Post. “It’s a little disconcerting,” she said.

“There is an element of exploitation,” said Molly Marshall, president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kan. “Women are anxious to serve as pastors. So, they will not negotiate for fair pay. Further, churches who call women are often strapped financially and in decline. Women enter these situations with knowledge that compensation will be meager.”

Church polity also impacts the size of pastors’ salaries. According to a Duke Divinity School study, connectional churches — such as Presbyterian or Lutheran — pay their pastors more than congregational churches, such as Baptist or United Church of Christ.

Although connectional churches often have wealthier members than congregational churches, the Duke study found centralized denominational decision-making just as decisive in keeping pastor salaries higher. By contrast, salaries in self-governing congregations largely are driven by market forces and by supply and demand, the study discovered. In the nation’s largest churches, the free market actually reverses the pattern, and pastor salaries in congregational churches begin to surpass those of connectional ones.

“To attract entrepreneurial clergy, some very large churches are paying entrepreneurial salaries,” the authors of the study wrote.

The bottom line, Ranier said: “Churches that do not do their homework on pastoral compensation tend to underpay their pastors.”

Getting it right — or coming close to it — can be critical to a church’s ability to retain qualified leadership. Ranier acknowledged what often is unspoken — some pastors leave churches because of pay issues.

“You will not likely hear a pastor announce in his resignation that he is leaving because of financial pressures,” Ranier wrote. “The reality is that, for a number of pastors, the issue of compensation is a major push from one church to another, or from the church to a secular vocation. It’s not that the pastor is in his job for the money; it’s that the compensation for his vocation is insufficient to meet his family’s needs.”

Those realities may be responsible for a recent reduction in the stigma historically associated with financial negotiations between a pastoral candidate and a search committee. It’s still “a fine line to walk,” said Wilson, but benefit boards like MMBB Financial Services now provide guides to negotiating pastor compensation.

“Ministers know that transitions are the primary time for making salary adjustments,” Wilson said. “The only real raise most clergy ever get (above cost of living) is when they move. Thus, it is important to negotiate up front if you think there is something missing or inadequate in the package. Congregations often hold back on an offer in the expectation that a counter offer will need to be made. I think that’s unfortunate, but it seems to be normative.”

That said, caution is in order, Wilson added.

“Aggressiveness is never a good thing when it comes to compensation,” he said. “Assertiveness is OK, up to a point. If a congregation senses that a minster is mercenary, they will back away — and should. It’s a fine line between being forthright and being overly concerned with dollars.”

]]>Robert DildayCongregationsFri, 23 Aug 2013 08:56:41 -0400Many ministers saddled with seminary debthttp://baptistnews.com/ministry/congregations/item/8793-many-ministers-saddled-with-seminary-debt
http://baptistnews.com/ministry/congregations/item/8793-many-ministers-saddled-with-seminary-debtA recent graduating class revealed the depth of the issue. Of 57 graduates, 21 had no debt, six owed less than $20,000, another six between $20,000 and $50,000, eight between $50,000 and $90,000 and 11 more than $100,000 — all acquired while at the seminary.

By Robert Dilday

When Congress overwhelmingly approved a measure last month to relieve spiraling student debt, churches probably didn’t realize the problem hits closer to home than expected — many pastors are leaving seminary and divinity school with tens of thousands of dollars in loans.

“It’s becoming a huge issue,” said Bill Wilson, president of the Center for Congregational Health. “I’ve heard of totals approaching $60,000. I had one resident who showed up with $40,000 between school and credit cards.”

Theological educators characterize the trend as troubling. A 2005 paper by the Auburn Center for the Study of Theological Education — grimly titled “The Gathering Storm”— found more than half of master of divinity students in 1991 had not borrowed for their seminary education. By 2001, only 37 percent could make that claim. About 1 percent of master of divinity graduates had borrowed $30,000 or more to fund their theological education in 1991; 10 years later 21 percent had borrowed at that level.

It no longer is unusual for seminary graduates to leave school with $70,000 to $80,000 in debt, Sharon Miller, associate director of the Auburn center told the Huffington Post in 2012.

An official at one Baptist seminary, who asked not to be identified, said a recent graduating class revealed the depth of the issue. Of 57 graduates, 21 had no debt, six owed less than $20,000, another six between $20,000 and $50,000, eight between $50,000 and $90,000 and 11 more than $100,000 — all acquired while at the seminary.

The growing student debt problem may just now be appearing on the radar of many Baptists in the South. For decades, generous allocations from the Southern Baptist Convention to its six seminaries, which educated the lion’s share of SBC pastors, kept tuition affordable — a pattern that continues, but to a lesser extent.

But after 1990, when the SBC and its theological institutions shifted to the right, many moderate students found a more compatible home at the wide array of new — and inevitably more expensive — seminaries and divinity schools.

Some of those schools, like Wake Forest University School of Divinity, are addressing the problem with scholarships that range from full tuition and a stipend to one-third tuition.

Others, like Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, which is unaffiliated with a university, are increasing student scholarship amounts from existing and new financial donations.

James Peak, the seminary’s director of business affairs and facilities, said average loan debt at his school is $34,900.

“Based on the research from 2012-2013 numbers, 47 percent of our students have loan debt from BTSR, 41 percent have absolutely no loan debt, and 12 percent had loan debt from before getting here, but haven’t taken any out since,” Peak said.

David Garland, dean of Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, said that while his students “do not in general report an overwhelming debt problem,” he detects a growing impact.

“The debt load on students does have its effect on churches as graduates are sometimes forced to find secular instead of ministerial employment to pay off student loans,” he said. “Churches sometimes help their ministers with their debt when they call them, but it would be cheaper in the long run to have helped to subsidize their seminary education expenses.“

Garland added he spends “a lot of time trying to increase endowed scholarship funds to keep costs lower for students.”

Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology is participating in a Lilly Endowment pilot program — the Theological School Initiative to Address Economic Challenges Facing Future Ministers — which aims to address the cost of seminary education and student debt.

“We are the only Baptist school in the group, and we were awarded one of the three-year grants,” Dean Alan Culpepper said. “At the beginning of the summer, we added a staff member to supervise the grant program, collect information, counsel students about financial aid, loans and financial planning, and lead workshops in these areas. We are trying to raise funds for scholarships on one hand and educate students about financial planning on the other.”

At Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kan., student debt is high for a small sector of students and growing, President Molly Marshall said.

“Central is beginning a program to address student debt through financial counseling and instruction in financial management,” she said. “The economics of ministry — from classroom to congregation — needs engaging. I believe that student debt precludes graduates from effective long-term service, because ministry compensation is not enough to service educational debt.”

]]>A recent graduating class revealed the depth of the issue. Of 57 graduates, 21 had no debt, six owed less than $20,000, another six between $20,000 and $50,000, eight between $50,000 and $90,000 and 11 more than $100,000 — all acquired while at the seminary.

By Robert Dilday

When Congress overwhelmingly approved a measure last month to relieve spiraling student debt, churches probably didn’t realize the problem hits closer to home than expected — many pastors are leaving seminary and divinity school with tens of thousands of dollars in loans.

“It’s becoming a huge issue,” said Bill Wilson, president of the Center for Congregational Health. “I’ve heard of totals approaching $60,000. I had one resident who showed up with $40,000 between school and credit cards.”

Theological educators characterize the trend as troubling. A 2005 paper by the Auburn Center for the Study of Theological Education — grimly titled “The Gathering Storm”— found more than half of master of divinity students in 1991 had not borrowed for their seminary education. By 2001, only 37 percent could make that claim. About 1 percent of master of divinity graduates had borrowed $30,000 or more to fund their theological education in 1991; 10 years later 21 percent had borrowed at that level.

It no longer is unusual for seminary graduates to leave school with $70,000 to $80,000 in debt, Sharon Miller, associate director of the Auburn center told the Huffington Post in 2012.

An official at one Baptist seminary, who asked not to be identified, said a recent graduating class revealed the depth of the issue. Of 57 graduates, 21 had no debt, six owed less than $20,000, another six between $20,000 and $50,000, eight between $50,000 and $90,000 and 11 more than $100,000 — all acquired while at the seminary.

The growing student debt problem may just now be appearing on the radar of many Baptists in the South. For decades, generous allocations from the Southern Baptist Convention to its six seminaries, which educated the lion’s share of SBC pastors, kept tuition affordable — a pattern that continues, but to a lesser extent.

But after 1990, when the SBC and its theological institutions shifted to the right, many moderate students found a more compatible home at the wide array of new — and inevitably more expensive — seminaries and divinity schools.

Some of those schools, like Wake Forest University School of Divinity, are addressing the problem with scholarships that range from full tuition and a stipend to one-third tuition.

Others, like Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, which is unaffiliated with a university, are increasing student scholarship amounts from existing and new financial donations.

James Peak, the seminary’s director of business affairs and facilities, said average loan debt at his school is $34,900.

“Based on the research from 2012-2013 numbers, 47 percent of our students have loan debt from BTSR, 41 percent have absolutely no loan debt, and 12 percent had loan debt from before getting here, but haven’t taken any out since,” Peak said.

David Garland, dean of Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, said that while his students “do not in general report an overwhelming debt problem,” he detects a growing impact.

“The debt load on students does have its effect on churches as graduates are sometimes forced to find secular instead of ministerial employment to pay off student loans,” he said. “Churches sometimes help their ministers with their debt when they call them, but it would be cheaper in the long run to have helped to subsidize their seminary education expenses.“

Garland added he spends “a lot of time trying to increase endowed scholarship funds to keep costs lower for students.”

Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology is participating in a Lilly Endowment pilot program — the Theological School Initiative to Address Economic Challenges Facing Future Ministers — which aims to address the cost of seminary education and student debt.

“We are the only Baptist school in the group, and we were awarded one of the three-year grants,” Dean Alan Culpepper said. “At the beginning of the summer, we added a staff member to supervise the grant program, collect information, counsel students about financial aid, loans and financial planning, and lead workshops in these areas. We are trying to raise funds for scholarships on one hand and educate students about financial planning on the other.”

At Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kan., student debt is high for a small sector of students and growing, President Molly Marshall said.

“Central is beginning a program to address student debt through financial counseling and instruction in financial management,” she said. “The economics of ministry — from classroom to congregation — needs engaging. I believe that student debt precludes graduates from effective long-term service, because ministry compensation is not enough to service educational debt.”

Are larger churches preying on smaller churches by pressuring them into giving up their autonomy to survive?

By Jeff Brumley

Some see the nation’s burgeoning church merger and multisite movements resulting from larger congregations preying on smaller ones, pressuring them into relinquishing buildings and land in exchange for survival.

In some circles, that’s called “steeple-jacking.” But it’s also largely a myth about a trend that’s already eclipsed the American megachurch phenomenon, said Jim Tomberlin, the author of Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work.

A consultant who facilitates church mergers, Tomberlin dismisses that predatory view of the process based on seeing cases where many money- and member-strapped congregations voted against merger—even at the risk of extinction.

“I have discovered you are not going to force a small church to do anything,” he said. Mergers that fail usually do so “because somebody doesn’t want to give up control.”

Put aside egos and logos

Tomberline, the founder and senior strategist of merger consulting firm MultiSite Solutions, said negative stereotypes about mergers and the related multisite church movement result from a years-long, painful learning process experienced by pastors, lay leaders and congregations who went about it putting pride and emotions before gospel values.

But the recent recession coupled with sliding church attendance pushed an increasing number of congregations to seek spiritually beneficial solutions to financial realities, Tomberline and other experts report.

The resulting merger and multisite phenomenon is occurring across the denominational spectrum, including Baptists of every stripe. The biggest bar to progress is usually pride and a reluctance to let go of tradition.

“There is a huge win-win if people can put aside their egos and their logos,” Tomberline said.

Two sinking ships

Before, church mergers were relatively rare and usually involved two struggling congregations united in response to declines in finances, attendance and relevance.

But those arrangements usually didn’t last too long, said John Muzyka, senior director of Service Realty, Inc., a Texas-based real estate firm that specializes working with religious groups seeking to purchase, sell, rent or merge.

“Sometimes, two sinking ships just makes a faster sinking ship,” he said.

Church-to-church deals can go wrong many ways, and at the heart of most failures is a tendency to cling to the past on one part and lack of communication on the other, Muzyka said.

Deals unravel, for example, when some members protest because they and their children were married or baptized there, he said. Those feelings often trump concerns about the building’s continued use, through sale or merger, for ministry.

“Missional thinking is, ‘I want to be able to put the dollars in ministry instead of struggling to survive to keep an emotional tie in this,'” Muzyka said.

But he found congregations more willing recently to put the missional before the emotional, and often in ways that enable them to remain on property over which they relinquish control.

“Mergers are a trend right now,” Muzyka said. And “most of the mergers I see are multisite people coming along side” struggling churches.

A shared future

Statistics support that observation and Tomberline’s statement that it’s outstripping the megachurch movement.

There are an estimated 5,000 multisite churches in the United States compared to 1,650 megachurches, according to figures provided by MultiSite Solutions. More than 6 million people attend multisite churches in North America, where 75 of the 100 largest congregations have multiple campuses.

In cases where campuses were created from mergers, the weaker or “following” church approached the larger or “lead” church after experiencing years of decline, Tomberline said. Most of the time the property of the following church simply is deeded over to the larger one and most or all of the members merge into the larger body.

The most successful transitions occur when the following church enters the process willing to surrender its identity, if necessary, to ensure its facilities continue to be used in a way that serves God.

“A synergy … comes with these kind of mergers that are more mission-driven versus more survival-driven,” Tomberline said. “It’s more about embracing a shared future together.”

Still, even when both parties are well-intentioned, the process can implode if neither is clear about its desires and intentions, Muzyka added.

Horror stories were exactly what Senior Pastor Travis Collins wanted to avoid when his three-campus church in Richmond, Va., was handed the keys to “aging and dying” New Covenant Baptist Church.

New Covenant’s interim pastor had approached Collins at Bon Air Baptist Church about the possibility of some sort of merger.

“They gave us their facilities, the money they had in the bank and all their resources,” he said.

It was made clear to New Covenant’s roughly 45 members that if the deal went through, New Covenant no longer would be New Covenant, Collins said.

“This is going to be different, the worship will be different, the culture will change, the feel, the atmosphere—this is going to be a completely different place. We said that from the beginning.”

Communication doesn’t guarantee a lack of stress or pain in such situations, he added.

New Covenant members were concerned about Bon Air’s intentions with one of its full-time employees and two part-timers paid with stipends, Collins noted. All were let go, he said.

“That was hard for us, and it was hard for them,” he said. “But it did not turn out to be a deal breaker.”

Nor did the name change: what will officially become Bon Air’s fourth campus on Sept. 8—with a soft opening on Aug. 18—will be known as “Bon Air Baptist @ The Villages,” in reference to its Richmond neighborhood.

The credit for the new campus goes to the 30 or so New Covenant members and their interim pastor, Collins said, because they put aside tradition to ensure their church remained a place of ministry.

“The heroes of the story are not the Bon Airs, the heroes of the story are the New Covenants,” Collins said.

Those are the kinds of stories Myzuka said he hears more than any other.

“Back in the day, mergers had that look of this one church swallowing up another,” Myzuka said. “But it really is about how can these churches accomplish their visions together?”

]]>

Are larger churches preying on smaller churches by pressuring them into giving up their autonomy to survive?

By Jeff Brumley

Some see the nation’s burgeoning church merger and multisite movements resulting from larger congregations preying on smaller ones, pressuring them into relinquishing buildings and land in exchange for survival.

In some circles, that’s called “steeple-jacking.” But it’s also largely a myth about a trend that’s already eclipsed the American megachurch phenomenon, said Jim Tomberlin, the author of Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work.

A consultant who facilitates church mergers, Tomberlin dismisses that predatory view of the process based on seeing cases where many money- and member-strapped congregations voted against merger—even at the risk of extinction.

“I have discovered you are not going to force a small church to do anything,” he said. Mergers that fail usually do so “because somebody doesn’t want to give up control.”

Put aside egos and logos

Tomberline, the founder and senior strategist of merger consulting firm MultiSite Solutions, said negative stereotypes about mergers and the related multisite church movement result from a years-long, painful learning process experienced by pastors, lay leaders and congregations who went about it putting pride and emotions before gospel values.

But the recent recession coupled with sliding church attendance pushed an increasing number of congregations to seek spiritually beneficial solutions to financial realities, Tomberline and other experts report.

The resulting merger and multisite phenomenon is occurring across the denominational spectrum, including Baptists of every stripe. The biggest bar to progress is usually pride and a reluctance to let go of tradition.

“There is a huge win-win if people can put aside their egos and their logos,” Tomberline said.

Two sinking ships

Before, church mergers were relatively rare and usually involved two struggling congregations united in response to declines in finances, attendance and relevance.

But those arrangements usually didn’t last too long, said John Muzyka, senior director of Service Realty, Inc., a Texas-based real estate firm that specializes working with religious groups seeking to purchase, sell, rent or merge.

“Sometimes, two sinking ships just makes a faster sinking ship,” he said.

Church-to-church deals can go wrong many ways, and at the heart of most failures is a tendency to cling to the past on one part and lack of communication on the other, Muzyka said.

Deals unravel, for example, when some members protest because they and their children were married or baptized there, he said. Those feelings often trump concerns about the building’s continued use, through sale or merger, for ministry.

“Missional thinking is, ‘I want to be able to put the dollars in ministry instead of struggling to survive to keep an emotional tie in this,'” Muzyka said.

But he found congregations more willing recently to put the missional before the emotional, and often in ways that enable them to remain on property over which they relinquish control.

“Mergers are a trend right now,” Muzyka said. And “most of the mergers I see are multisite people coming along side” struggling churches.

A shared future

Statistics support that observation and Tomberline’s statement that it’s outstripping the megachurch movement.

There are an estimated 5,000 multisite churches in the United States compared to 1,650 megachurches, according to figures provided by MultiSite Solutions. More than 6 million people attend multisite churches in North America, where 75 of the 100 largest congregations have multiple campuses.

In cases where campuses were created from mergers, the weaker or “following” church approached the larger or “lead” church after experiencing years of decline, Tomberline said. Most of the time the property of the following church simply is deeded over to the larger one and most or all of the members merge into the larger body.

The most successful transitions occur when the following church enters the process willing to surrender its identity, if necessary, to ensure its facilities continue to be used in a way that serves God.

“A synergy … comes with these kind of mergers that are more mission-driven versus more survival-driven,” Tomberline said. “It’s more about embracing a shared future together.”

Still, even when both parties are well-intentioned, the process can implode if neither is clear about its desires and intentions, Muzyka added.

Horror stories were exactly what Senior Pastor Travis Collins wanted to avoid when his three-campus church in Richmond, Va., was handed the keys to “aging and dying” New Covenant Baptist Church.

New Covenant’s interim pastor had approached Collins at Bon Air Baptist Church about the possibility of some sort of merger.

“They gave us their facilities, the money they had in the bank and all their resources,” he said.

It was made clear to New Covenant’s roughly 45 members that if the deal went through, New Covenant no longer would be New Covenant, Collins said.

“This is going to be different, the worship will be different, the culture will change, the feel, the atmosphere—this is going to be a completely different place. We said that from the beginning.”

Communication doesn’t guarantee a lack of stress or pain in such situations, he added.

New Covenant members were concerned about Bon Air’s intentions with one of its full-time employees and two part-timers paid with stipends, Collins noted. All were let go, he said.

“That was hard for us, and it was hard for them,” he said. “But it did not turn out to be a deal breaker.”

Nor did the name change: what will officially become Bon Air’s fourth campus on Sept. 8—with a soft opening on Aug. 18—will be known as “Bon Air Baptist @ The Villages,” in reference to its Richmond neighborhood.

The credit for the new campus goes to the 30 or so New Covenant members and their interim pastor, Collins said, because they put aside tradition to ensure their church remained a place of ministry.

“The heroes of the story are not the Bon Airs, the heroes of the story are the New Covenants,” Collins said.

Those are the kinds of stories Myzuka said he hears more than any other.

“Back in the day, mergers had that look of this one church swallowing up another,” Myzuka said. “But it really is about how can these churches accomplish their visions together?”

Faith-based re-entry programs seek to reduce former inmates' chances of returning to prison.

By Ken Camp

Men just released from state prisons in Huntsville, Texas, arrived by bus in Fort Worth and gathered at the Tarrant County Probation Office. Before re-entering the free world, they heard straight talk from someone who understands what they face.

"Take it from a four-time loser,” said Paul Owens, education coordinator for Welcome Back/Tarrant County, a faith-based re-entry program for ex-offenders. “You’re going to have to deal with some attitudes. You need to take your pride and put it aside. You don’t have it all together. That’s why you’re sitting here."

The men in the small room in South Fort Worth are among the 60 new parolees a week who attend re-entry orientation programs there each week, said Dalonika McDonald, unit supervisor for the Fort Worth District Re-entry Center.

Successful transition from life in prison to life in free society depends on three factors, Owens told the parolees — a support group, education and a job.

“The good news is you can make a change in your life,” he said. “You don’t have to go back.”

A bleak picture

Statistics suggest the odds are against them. Nationally, about 650,000 people are released from prison annually, according to the Reentry Policy Council, a project of the Council of State Governments Justice Center. Two-thirds of state prisoners are rearrested within three years of release.

“Research shows that when people who are released from prison or jail return to the community, their job prospects are generally dim, their chances of finding their own place to live are bleak, and their health is typically poor,” the council’s website states.

The council notes:

-- Three of four offenders released from prisons have a substance abuse problem. Only 10 percent in state prisons received treatment during incarceration.

-- More than one of three reports some physical or mental disability.

-- More than half — 55 percent — have at least one child under age 18 who depends on the ex-offender for financial support.

-- Only one-third participated in educational programs in prison, and barely more than one-fourth (27 percent) received vocational training.

Seeing lives transformed

Faith-based re-entry programs like Welcome Back/Tarrant County are committed to keeping ex-offenders from returning to prison and seeing lives transformed by the gospel, said Chaplain Jerry Cabluck, who leads the ministry.

The first 72 hours after an ex-offender is paroled often determines whether he or she re-enters society successfully or ultimately returns to prison, he noted.

“When an incarcerated person is released, the first thing that happens is they encounter prostitutes, alcohol, drugs — sin and temptation right in front of them,” Cabluck said. “The Lord’s calling on my heart is to help ex-offenders learn basic life skills and provide a support network to help them resist the temptation to fall back into old self-defeating lifestyles.”

A person who has been incarcerated for an extended time often returns to an urban area, without a driver’s license, with no knowledge of public transportation and with no idea where to find a job, he noted.

Welcome Back/Tarrant County provides newly paroled ex-offenders food, clothing and access to other services, such as health care and job-readiness training. The ministry seeks to connect the parolees with a church and mentors, as well as helping them pursue educational opportunities and find a job. The program places men and women in entry-level jobs, and at least 19 have enrolled in community college.

In many ways, four-time-offender Owens is typical of the workforce Welcome Back/Tarrant County depends on, Cabluck said.

“We’re a green ministry. We recycle lives,” Cabluck said.

Ex-offenders relate well to other ex-offenders who know something about their life experiences.

Bridging two worlds

Pastor Sie Davis understands life behind bars, life on the streets and how to bridge the two worlds.

“I was born in prison and born again in prison,” said Davis, a church planter who leads a residential ministry in Dallas to help ex-offenders make the transition to life in the free world.

His mother, who struggled with drug addiction, was incarcerated in the Goree State Farm for Women near Huntsville when she gave birth to her son in 1955.

“They didn’t know what to do with me. I was in the prison nursery nearly three months before my aunt came to get me,” he said. “I tell people I was the youngest parolee in the state of Texas.”

But it marked neither his final release nor his last time in prison.

“I spent most of my life on the streets of South Dallas and 17 and one-half years in prison. It was on the installment plan. I was in prison four times,” he said. On the streets, he worked for his stepfather — Chicago Red, an organized crime figure known as “the Godfather of South Dallas.” On two occasions when he was imprisoned, he shared a cell with his biological father, who was doing time for drug-related charges, pimping and pandering.

During one of his periods of incarceration, Davis made a profession of faith in Christ. After his conversion, several prominent leaders in prison ministry helped mentor and disciple him. Even so, within six months after his release, he returned to prison on a drug charge.

Christian life in the free world

Many ex-offenders find living as a Christian in the free world after release more difficult, in many respects, than living as a Christian in prison, Davis said.

“People say, ‘Church is church.’ Church ain’t just church. It’s different in prison than it is out here,” he said.

African-Americans, Hispanics and Anglos worship alongside each other in prison — a rarity in the free world, he noted. Practices common in most churches — such as passing the plate to collect an offering — are foreign to men and women whose first worship experiences are in prison chapels.

Furthermore, offenders who first become acquainted with free-world churches through prison ministry volunteers may develop an unrealistic expectation of what it means to live as a Christian outside prison.

“They put on a show like they’re always happy, get along with everybody and have no problems. Come out, and you see they have struggles like everybody. There’s a lot of illusion that’s taken as fact,” Davis said.

Making the transition

Ex-offenders need help with employment, transportation and other services. But mostly, Davis said, they need help making the mental transition to life outside a penal institution.

“There’s a transition in the mind when a person goes into prison — moving from this big old world to go live in a little cell and never go more than two or three miles for years at a time,” he said.

Likewise, release demands mental transition. He recalled one ex-offender who constantly had to be reminded after release to zip his trousers.

“There are no zippers on prison uniforms,” he explained. “Things we take for granted, they don’t understand.”

In the last decade, Davis has devoted his life to helping ex-offenders. He directs the statewide Crossroads Unwinding ministry and its 12-step substance-abuse-recovery “Overcomers” program. He leads a residential program for recently released ex-convicts, with a location for men in South Dallas and a women’s facility in the Pleasant Grove area of Dallas.

He is pastor of the Church of the Called Out Ones, and he works as a church-planting consultant with the Baptist General Convention of Texas to help start other congregations for ex-offenders. He also preaches in prisons around the state, sharing his testimony and seeking to prepare prisoners for life outside penal institutions.

Davis believes ex-offenders need to worship with other ex-offenders in the crucial months immediately after their release, but he also hopes mature Christians from traditional churches will serve as mentors to spend time with newly released prisoners, listen to them and help them grow spiritually.

“It’s tough. Ex-offenders have to behave over and above everybody else. They have to strive a little harder than anybody else. They come out filled with fear. They know a lot is coming against them,” he said.

“At the same time, the church has fear. We have to teach churches how to accept ex-offenders. …We need to educate the church. There’s a mission field right here — people who are getting out of prison every day.”

]]>

Faith-based re-entry programs seek to reduce former inmates' chances of returning to prison.

By Ken Camp

Men just released from state prisons in Huntsville, Texas, arrived by bus in Fort Worth and gathered at the Tarrant County Probation Office. Before re-entering the free world, they heard straight talk from someone who understands what they face.

"Take it from a four-time loser,” said Paul Owens, education coordinator for Welcome Back/Tarrant County, a faith-based re-entry program for ex-offenders. “You’re going to have to deal with some attitudes. You need to take your pride and put it aside. You don’t have it all together. That’s why you’re sitting here."

The men in the small room in South Fort Worth are among the 60 new parolees a week who attend re-entry orientation programs there each week, said Dalonika McDonald, unit supervisor for the Fort Worth District Re-entry Center.

Successful transition from life in prison to life in free society depends on three factors, Owens told the parolees — a support group, education and a job.

“The good news is you can make a change in your life,” he said. “You don’t have to go back.”

A bleak picture

Statistics suggest the odds are against them. Nationally, about 650,000 people are released from prison annually, according to the Reentry Policy Council, a project of the Council of State Governments Justice Center. Two-thirds of state prisoners are rearrested within three years of release.

“Research shows that when people who are released from prison or jail return to the community, their job prospects are generally dim, their chances of finding their own place to live are bleak, and their health is typically poor,” the council’s website states.

The council notes:

-- Three of four offenders released from prisons have a substance abuse problem. Only 10 percent in state prisons received treatment during incarceration.

-- More than one of three reports some physical or mental disability.

-- More than half — 55 percent — have at least one child under age 18 who depends on the ex-offender for financial support.

-- Only one-third participated in educational programs in prison, and barely more than one-fourth (27 percent) received vocational training.

Seeing lives transformed

Faith-based re-entry programs like Welcome Back/Tarrant County are committed to keeping ex-offenders from returning to prison and seeing lives transformed by the gospel, said Chaplain Jerry Cabluck, who leads the ministry.

The first 72 hours after an ex-offender is paroled often determines whether he or she re-enters society successfully or ultimately returns to prison, he noted.

“When an incarcerated person is released, the first thing that happens is they encounter prostitutes, alcohol, drugs — sin and temptation right in front of them,” Cabluck said. “The Lord’s calling on my heart is to help ex-offenders learn basic life skills and provide a support network to help them resist the temptation to fall back into old self-defeating lifestyles.”

A person who has been incarcerated for an extended time often returns to an urban area, without a driver’s license, with no knowledge of public transportation and with no idea where to find a job, he noted.

Welcome Back/Tarrant County provides newly paroled ex-offenders food, clothing and access to other services, such as health care and job-readiness training. The ministry seeks to connect the parolees with a church and mentors, as well as helping them pursue educational opportunities and find a job. The program places men and women in entry-level jobs, and at least 19 have enrolled in community college.

In many ways, four-time-offender Owens is typical of the workforce Welcome Back/Tarrant County depends on, Cabluck said.

“We’re a green ministry. We recycle lives,” Cabluck said.

Ex-offenders relate well to other ex-offenders who know something about their life experiences.

Bridging two worlds

Pastor Sie Davis understands life behind bars, life on the streets and how to bridge the two worlds.

“I was born in prison and born again in prison,” said Davis, a church planter who leads a residential ministry in Dallas to help ex-offenders make the transition to life in the free world.

His mother, who struggled with drug addiction, was incarcerated in the Goree State Farm for Women near Huntsville when she gave birth to her son in 1955.

“They didn’t know what to do with me. I was in the prison nursery nearly three months before my aunt came to get me,” he said. “I tell people I was the youngest parolee in the state of Texas.”

But it marked neither his final release nor his last time in prison.

“I spent most of my life on the streets of South Dallas and 17 and one-half years in prison. It was on the installment plan. I was in prison four times,” he said. On the streets, he worked for his stepfather — Chicago Red, an organized crime figure known as “the Godfather of South Dallas.” On two occasions when he was imprisoned, he shared a cell with his biological father, who was doing time for drug-related charges, pimping and pandering.

During one of his periods of incarceration, Davis made a profession of faith in Christ. After his conversion, several prominent leaders in prison ministry helped mentor and disciple him. Even so, within six months after his release, he returned to prison on a drug charge.

Christian life in the free world

Many ex-offenders find living as a Christian in the free world after release more difficult, in many respects, than living as a Christian in prison, Davis said.

“People say, ‘Church is church.’ Church ain’t just church. It’s different in prison than it is out here,” he said.

African-Americans, Hispanics and Anglos worship alongside each other in prison — a rarity in the free world, he noted. Practices common in most churches — such as passing the plate to collect an offering — are foreign to men and women whose first worship experiences are in prison chapels.

Furthermore, offenders who first become acquainted with free-world churches through prison ministry volunteers may develop an unrealistic expectation of what it means to live as a Christian outside prison.

“They put on a show like they’re always happy, get along with everybody and have no problems. Come out, and you see they have struggles like everybody. There’s a lot of illusion that’s taken as fact,” Davis said.

Making the transition

Ex-offenders need help with employment, transportation and other services. But mostly, Davis said, they need help making the mental transition to life outside a penal institution.

“There’s a transition in the mind when a person goes into prison — moving from this big old world to go live in a little cell and never go more than two or three miles for years at a time,” he said.

Likewise, release demands mental transition. He recalled one ex-offender who constantly had to be reminded after release to zip his trousers.

“There are no zippers on prison uniforms,” he explained. “Things we take for granted, they don’t understand.”

In the last decade, Davis has devoted his life to helping ex-offenders. He directs the statewide Crossroads Unwinding ministry and its 12-step substance-abuse-recovery “Overcomers” program. He leads a residential program for recently released ex-convicts, with a location for men in South Dallas and a women’s facility in the Pleasant Grove area of Dallas.

He is pastor of the Church of the Called Out Ones, and he works as a church-planting consultant with the Baptist General Convention of Texas to help start other congregations for ex-offenders. He also preaches in prisons around the state, sharing his testimony and seeking to prepare prisoners for life outside penal institutions.

Davis believes ex-offenders need to worship with other ex-offenders in the crucial months immediately after their release, but he also hopes mature Christians from traditional churches will serve as mentors to spend time with newly released prisoners, listen to them and help them grow spiritually.

“It’s tough. Ex-offenders have to behave over and above everybody else. They have to strive a little harder than anybody else. They come out filled with fear. They know a lot is coming against them,” he said.

“At the same time, the church has fear. We have to teach churches how to accept ex-offenders. …We need to educate the church. There’s a mission field right here — people who are getting out of prison every day.”

Whether inspired by religious devotion or just frustration with modernity, some people feel drawn to simple living.

Since at least the middle of the 19th century, when Henry Thoreau described his solitary two years in a hut on the shores of Walden Pond, the allure of the simple life has animated the imagination of generations of Americans seeking alternatives to relentless materialism.

By the mid-20th century, Mother Earth News brought imagination to life with its 99 Ways to a Simple Lifestyle. Although out of print, the book continues to instruct yearners after a less-cluttered, environmentally friendly existence with advice on gardening, repairing leaky faucets, making and mending clothing and -- perhaps less helpfully -- how to build a yurt, a portable wood-frame shelter used by Central Asian nomads.

For Christians, simple living -- however beneficial to health and environment -- has held special appeal in imitating the life of Jesus Christ and adopting the imperatives of the gospel, important themes during Lent, the contemplative season which began Feb. 13 and continues until just before Easter.

“For me the witness of simplicity is a recognition that we ultimately trust in God,” said Greg Jarrell, a Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond graduate and member of Hyaets, a Christian community in a low-income Charlotte neighborhood.

“Another way to say that is we trust one another to provide what we need. God provides us with what we need through one another. We learn to trust God and learn to trust our brothers and sisters by simplicity rather than by learning to trust ourselves and becoming our own gods.”

Jarrell’s commitment to simplicity is motivated in part by his association with Hyaets -- “tree of life” in Hebrew -- where, along with his wife and another couple, he ministers in the economically depressed Enderly Park neighborhood as an intentional Christian community seeking to build bridges between the poor and the affluent.

“I think that ultimately you can live more deeply into the world with less stuff,” he said. “Attachment to a particular place and people, and to the small things that you actually need -- being attached to those things enables to live in a deeper way. The cultural norm is to be detached. Anything that comes along that’s new, just by virtue of being new, is better and we throw away the old.”

Jarrell’s is an uncommon response among Baptists, whose commitment to biblical lifestyles isn’t historically associated with simplicity. But Baptists don’t need to look far to find models of a simple way of life, a hallmark of their close theological cousins, the Mennonites.

“That’s what centers them,” said Bill Leonard, the James and Marilyn Dunn Professor of Church History and Baptist Studies at Wake Forest University School of Divinity.

“A simplified lifestyle is closely related to Mennonites’ understanding of conscience and responsibility. The gospel requires a new set of glasses to look at the world, at government, at authority and at the environment.”

For Mennonites, living a simple life is part of a “broader package” inspired by the gospel, one that includes a passion for peacemaking, nonresistance, compassion for the poor and care of the environment, he said. A simple lifestyle both shapes and is shaped by those additional concerns, he said — a theology succinctly expressed in a quote attributed to Ghandi and displayed on bumper stickers: “Live simply so that others may simply live.”

“It raises the question: In what ways should a response to, say, the environment be a part of what centers Baptists?” Leonard asked.

Mennonites -- named for Menno Simons, a 16th-century reformer -- are part of the Anabaptist movement that emerged in central Europe during the Reformation. While their relationship to the first Baptists who appeared at about the same time in England is disputed, they have a “spiritual kinship,” said Leonard.

“They began first and their understanding of a believer’s church was very close to that of early Baptists,” he said. “There were contacts that reflected communication and influence. Many historians see the two as theological and historical cousins rather than one having a direct lineage to the other.”

A worldwide 400th anniversary service of the Baptist movement in Amsterdam in 2008 was held in the Singelkerk, a 17th-century Mennonite church not far from the site of a bakery where the first Baptist meeting is thought to have been organized by John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, who may have worshipped at the Singelkerk.

Close spiritual ties with those “cousins” could offer models for Baptists eager to shed a consumerist mentality. But Mennonites are widely diverse, ranging from “plain people” — including the Amish -- to those whose dress and practices are indistinguishable from surrounding society.

Some Mennonites have adapted so successfully to prevailing cultural norms that they no longer regard simple living as a top faith commitment. In a 2006 profile of the Mennonite Church USA, “living a simple lifestyle” ranked last, with 27 percent, among 14 statements respondents were asked to choose from as important to their faith commitments.

“Granted, one could argue that the top-ranked statement, ‘following Jesus in daily life,’ encompasses living simply,” the Mennonite World Review editorialized in 2010. “However, if this information indicates that most members of one Mennonite group don’t see living simply as an essential part of following Jesus, that is troubling.

“Living simply is a source of Anabaptist distinction all of us can embrace, plain or not,” the newsjournal concluded -- an indication that Mennonites could continue to be models for Baptists exploring ways to adopt simple living.

For some pursuers of a simple life, the biggest obstacle is technology — or an assumption they’ll need to live without it. Rejection of technical devices, however, isn’t at the heart of simplified living, practitioners insist.

John Peters, a Mennonite pastor in Seminole, Texas, told the Avalanche-Journal in nearby Lubbock he remembers riding in a horse-drawn buggy while growing up. Today, he drives a car and watches DirectTV. As a pastor, Peters deals with change nearly every day, he said. Some of it he embraces, and some of it he battles.

Jarrell’s experience at Hyaets has taught him to treat technology with care but not to discard it -- an attitude he saw displayed among friends in the Bruderhof, a 20th-century movement inspired by Anabaptists.

“They are wary of technology, but they will utilize it,” he said. “One of the guiding principles is to know what the important convictions are in your life and to allow technology to facilitate those in places where it can.”

But he added: “The thing about technology is that its instant gratification feeds into our brains and we get addicted. You have to have someone you trust who is willing to tell you the truth (about one’s addiction to technology). You don’t always have enough insight on your own to know when you have started to serve it, rather than the other way around.”

Whether inspired by religious devotion or just frustration with modernity, some people feel drawn to simple living.

Since at least the middle of the 19th century, when Henry Thoreau described his solitary two years in a hut on the shores of Walden Pond, the allure of the simple life has animated the imagination of generations of Americans seeking alternatives to relentless materialism.

By the mid-20th century, Mother Earth News brought imagination to life with its 99 Ways to a Simple Lifestyle. Although out of print, the book continues to instruct yearners after a less-cluttered, environmentally friendly existence with advice on gardening, repairing leaky faucets, making and mending clothing and -- perhaps less helpfully -- how to build a yurt, a portable wood-frame shelter used by Central Asian nomads.

For Christians, simple living -- however beneficial to health and environment -- has held special appeal in imitating the life of Jesus Christ and adopting the imperatives of the gospel, important themes during Lent, the contemplative season which began Feb. 13 and continues until just before Easter.

“For me the witness of simplicity is a recognition that we ultimately trust in God,” said Greg Jarrell, a Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond graduate and member of Hyaets, a Christian community in a low-income Charlotte neighborhood.

“Another way to say that is we trust one another to provide what we need. God provides us with what we need through one another. We learn to trust God and learn to trust our brothers and sisters by simplicity rather than by learning to trust ourselves and becoming our own gods.”

Jarrell’s commitment to simplicity is motivated in part by his association with Hyaets -- “tree of life” in Hebrew -- where, along with his wife and another couple, he ministers in the economically depressed Enderly Park neighborhood as an intentional Christian community seeking to build bridges between the poor and the affluent.

“I think that ultimately you can live more deeply into the world with less stuff,” he said. “Attachment to a particular place and people, and to the small things that you actually need -- being attached to those things enables to live in a deeper way. The cultural norm is to be detached. Anything that comes along that’s new, just by virtue of being new, is better and we throw away the old.”

Jarrell’s is an uncommon response among Baptists, whose commitment to biblical lifestyles isn’t historically associated with simplicity. But Baptists don’t need to look far to find models of a simple way of life, a hallmark of their close theological cousins, the Mennonites.

“That’s what centers them,” said Bill Leonard, the James and Marilyn Dunn Professor of Church History and Baptist Studies at Wake Forest University School of Divinity.

“A simplified lifestyle is closely related to Mennonites’ understanding of conscience and responsibility. The gospel requires a new set of glasses to look at the world, at government, at authority and at the environment.”

For Mennonites, living a simple life is part of a “broader package” inspired by the gospel, one that includes a passion for peacemaking, nonresistance, compassion for the poor and care of the environment, he said. A simple lifestyle both shapes and is shaped by those additional concerns, he said — a theology succinctly expressed in a quote attributed to Ghandi and displayed on bumper stickers: “Live simply so that others may simply live.”

“It raises the question: In what ways should a response to, say, the environment be a part of what centers Baptists?” Leonard asked.

Mennonites -- named for Menno Simons, a 16th-century reformer -- are part of the Anabaptist movement that emerged in central Europe during the Reformation. While their relationship to the first Baptists who appeared at about the same time in England is disputed, they have a “spiritual kinship,” said Leonard.

“They began first and their understanding of a believer’s church was very close to that of early Baptists,” he said. “There were contacts that reflected communication and influence. Many historians see the two as theological and historical cousins rather than one having a direct lineage to the other.”

A worldwide 400th anniversary service of the Baptist movement in Amsterdam in 2008 was held in the Singelkerk, a 17th-century Mennonite church not far from the site of a bakery where the first Baptist meeting is thought to have been organized by John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, who may have worshipped at the Singelkerk.

Close spiritual ties with those “cousins” could offer models for Baptists eager to shed a consumerist mentality. But Mennonites are widely diverse, ranging from “plain people” — including the Amish -- to those whose dress and practices are indistinguishable from surrounding society.

Some Mennonites have adapted so successfully to prevailing cultural norms that they no longer regard simple living as a top faith commitment. In a 2006 profile of the Mennonite Church USA, “living a simple lifestyle” ranked last, with 27 percent, among 14 statements respondents were asked to choose from as important to their faith commitments.

“Granted, one could argue that the top-ranked statement, ‘following Jesus in daily life,’ encompasses living simply,” the Mennonite World Review editorialized in 2010. “However, if this information indicates that most members of one Mennonite group don’t see living simply as an essential part of following Jesus, that is troubling.

“Living simply is a source of Anabaptist distinction all of us can embrace, plain or not,” the newsjournal concluded -- an indication that Mennonites could continue to be models for Baptists exploring ways to adopt simple living.

For some pursuers of a simple life, the biggest obstacle is technology — or an assumption they’ll need to live without it. Rejection of technical devices, however, isn’t at the heart of simplified living, practitioners insist.

John Peters, a Mennonite pastor in Seminole, Texas, told the Avalanche-Journal in nearby Lubbock he remembers riding in a horse-drawn buggy while growing up. Today, he drives a car and watches DirectTV. As a pastor, Peters deals with change nearly every day, he said. Some of it he embraces, and some of it he battles.

Jarrell’s experience at Hyaets has taught him to treat technology with care but not to discard it -- an attitude he saw displayed among friends in the Bruderhof, a 20th-century movement inspired by Anabaptists.

“They are wary of technology, but they will utilize it,” he said. “One of the guiding principles is to know what the important convictions are in your life and to allow technology to facilitate those in places where it can.”

But he added: “The thing about technology is that its instant gratification feeds into our brains and we get addicted. You have to have someone you trust who is willing to tell you the truth (about one’s addiction to technology). You don’t always have enough insight on your own to know when you have started to serve it, rather than the other way around.”

Are Christians required to give 10 percent of their income to the church? Is it based on gross or net income? Would God accept less in hard times?

By Vicki Brown

The issue of tithing -- traditionally understood as 10 percent -- has perplexed churchgoers for years. Interpretation and denominational practice usually set the tone for givers, often with tension between giving as law or “old covenant” or as grace under the “new covenant” -- both biblically based.

Begin with 10 percent

“The principal topic of discussion at the morning session of the Southern Baptist Convention was the report of the committee on tithing.… The committee recommended the adoption of the tithing system, and that several state conventions, district associations, the pastors, churches and missionary societies educate the people up to paying systematically to God not less than one-tenth of their income,” The New York Times reported May 12, 1895.

From its beginning in 1845, the convention has emphasized giving. Still today, the SBC is among denominations that encourage believers to give at least 10 percent of their income through their local church. Leaders of the two major faith-based financial service ministries -- Crown Financial Ministries and Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University -- do as well.

Those who promote the 10-percent concept usually cite Malachi 3:8-11, especially verse 10 which emphasizes bringing the “full tenth into the storehouse” (Holman Christian Standard Bible). The passage promises that God will “open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.”

They point to Psalm 24:1 that everything belongs to God already, and to Genesis 14, the story of Abraham’s paying a tenth as tribute to Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest to God. Tithing proponents also cite Proverbs 3:9 that calls believers to honor God with the firstfruits of the harvest. Again, the passage promises a blessing.

In an article by ministry staff, Crown calls the tithe “seed stock,” based on 2 Corinthians 9:10: “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness” (New International Version).

On his website, Ramsey insists God established the tithing principle for believers’ benefit -- teaching them “how to keep God first” and “how to be unselfish.” The financial consultant also stressed that “God is trying to teach us how to prosper over time.”

Tithing advocates encourage believers to continue giving at 10 percent, even when in debt. Ramsey believes those who cannot live on 90 percent of their income will not be able to do so on 100 percent. He also believes those who examine their budgets can still give “at least” 10 percent, regardless of their circumstances.

Crown stresses that believers have options, even while in debt. They could tithe on the amount remaining after paying creditors each month. Or they could commit to giving at least some amount to God, starting with less than 10 percent and increasing the percentage as debts are paid or as income increases.

If an individual’s debts require all of his or her income, the person can “tithe” by volunteering at church or by serving the needy.

To those who suggest the tithe is an Old Testament concept supplanted by the new covenant, Randy Alcorn, author of The Treasure Principle, noted on his blog, “However, the fact is that every New Testament example of giving goes beyond the tithe.

While he believes in the “superiority” of the new covenant over the old, he said he believes “there’s ongoing value to certain aspects of the old covenant.” Tithing is one of those.

Grace giving

Others advocate that under the New Testament, grace rather than law should guide giving.

“Tithing was a wonderful institution in the Mosaic law,” Croteau said by e-mail. “However, the Mosaic law, including the tithe, has been fulfilled by Christ. The tithe was connected to festivals, government and religion in the Old Testament and was always connected to the land of Israel.”

Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, points to Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42 to show that the “Lord was concerned not only with what we give but how we give,” Akin wrote.

He uses 2 Corinthians 8-9 when teaching his students about what he has termed “grace giving.” Giving is an expression of gratitude for what God has done through Jesus, with the emphasis on generosity.

Akin said the Corinthians passage points out circumstances and difficulties should not interrupt generosity, financial giving is a reflection of believers first giving themselves to God, and Jesus-followers “should excel in the grace of giving.”

He added the Scripture also points out that willing generosity is “more important than the amount given,” that believers should give through churches and other ministries that will handle gifts “judiciously” and that the generosity of some believers will encourage others.

American Baptist Churches-USA also encourages giving out of gratitude. “The tithe is, for Christians, not a legalistic obligation, but an opportunity for grateful response to God’s grace,” the denomination states on its website.

The group states that tithing is biblical but as stewardship and discipleship rather than as a legalistic practice. “American Baptist should see tithing as an expression of God’s grace, not a legalistic way of earning grace. It is a response—not a requirement.”

Those who advocate a minimum of 10 percent also encourage believers to give out of love. Ramsey notes on his website, “Read the Bible and take from it what you will, and if you tithe, do it out of love for God, not guilt.”

Are Christians required to give 10 percent of their income to the church? Is it based on gross or net income? Would God accept less in hard times?

By Vicki Brown

The issue of tithing -- traditionally understood as 10 percent -- has perplexed churchgoers for years. Interpretation and denominational practice usually set the tone for givers, often with tension between giving as law or “old covenant” or as grace under the “new covenant” -- both biblically based.

Begin with 10 percent

“The principal topic of discussion at the morning session of the Southern Baptist Convention was the report of the committee on tithing.… The committee recommended the adoption of the tithing system, and that several state conventions, district associations, the pastors, churches and missionary societies educate the people up to paying systematically to God not less than one-tenth of their income,” The New York Times reported May 12, 1895.

From its beginning in 1845, the convention has emphasized giving. Still today, the SBC is among denominations that encourage believers to give at least 10 percent of their income through their local church. Leaders of the two major faith-based financial service ministries -- Crown Financial Ministries and Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University -- do as well.

Those who promote the 10-percent concept usually cite Malachi 3:8-11, especially verse 10 which emphasizes bringing the “full tenth into the storehouse” (Holman Christian Standard Bible). The passage promises that God will “open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.”

They point to Psalm 24:1 that everything belongs to God already, and to Genesis 14, the story of Abraham’s paying a tenth as tribute to Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest to God. Tithing proponents also cite Proverbs 3:9 that calls believers to honor God with the firstfruits of the harvest. Again, the passage promises a blessing.

In an article by ministry staff, Crown calls the tithe “seed stock,” based on 2 Corinthians 9:10: “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness” (New International Version).

On his website, Ramsey insists God established the tithing principle for believers’ benefit -- teaching them “how to keep God first” and “how to be unselfish.” The financial consultant also stressed that “God is trying to teach us how to prosper over time.”

Tithing advocates encourage believers to continue giving at 10 percent, even when in debt. Ramsey believes those who cannot live on 90 percent of their income will not be able to do so on 100 percent. He also believes those who examine their budgets can still give “at least” 10 percent, regardless of their circumstances.

Crown stresses that believers have options, even while in debt. They could tithe on the amount remaining after paying creditors each month. Or they could commit to giving at least some amount to God, starting with less than 10 percent and increasing the percentage as debts are paid or as income increases.

If an individual’s debts require all of his or her income, the person can “tithe” by volunteering at church or by serving the needy.

To those who suggest the tithe is an Old Testament concept supplanted by the new covenant, Randy Alcorn, author of The Treasure Principle, noted on his blog, “However, the fact is that every New Testament example of giving goes beyond the tithe.

While he believes in the “superiority” of the new covenant over the old, he said he believes “there’s ongoing value to certain aspects of the old covenant.” Tithing is one of those.

Grace giving

Others advocate that under the New Testament, grace rather than law should guide giving.

“Tithing was a wonderful institution in the Mosaic law,” Croteau said by e-mail. “However, the Mosaic law, including the tithe, has been fulfilled by Christ. The tithe was connected to festivals, government and religion in the Old Testament and was always connected to the land of Israel.”

Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, points to Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42 to show that the “Lord was concerned not only with what we give but how we give,” Akin wrote.

He uses 2 Corinthians 8-9 when teaching his students about what he has termed “grace giving.” Giving is an expression of gratitude for what God has done through Jesus, with the emphasis on generosity.

Akin said the Corinthians passage points out circumstances and difficulties should not interrupt generosity, financial giving is a reflection of believers first giving themselves to God, and Jesus-followers “should excel in the grace of giving.”

He added the Scripture also points out that willing generosity is “more important than the amount given,” that believers should give through churches and other ministries that will handle gifts “judiciously” and that the generosity of some believers will encourage others.

American Baptist Churches-USA also encourages giving out of gratitude. “The tithe is, for Christians, not a legalistic obligation, but an opportunity for grateful response to God’s grace,” the denomination states on its website.

The group states that tithing is biblical but as stewardship and discipleship rather than as a legalistic practice. “American Baptist should see tithing as an expression of God’s grace, not a legalistic way of earning grace. It is a response—not a requirement.”

Those who advocate a minimum of 10 percent also encourage believers to give out of love. Ramsey notes on his website, “Read the Bible and take from it what you will, and if you tithe, do it out of love for God, not guilt.”

]]>Vicki BrownNew Voice StoriesSun, 13 Jan 2013 19:00:00 -0500Silent worship not just for Catholicshttp://baptistnews.com/new-voice-stories/item/7814-contemplative-worship-it’s-not-just-a-catholic-thing
http://baptistnews.com/new-voice-stories/item/7814-contemplative-worship-it’s-not-just-a-catholic-thingAn ancient form of worship, contemplative prayer is making a comeback in Baptist churches.

By Jeff Brumley

Terms like “silence and reflection,” “creating space” and “getting in touch with yourself” were absent from Chad Kerr’s Baptist upbringing in Georgia. But they’ve since become central to his ability to cope with the demands of life as a bank president, husband and father of three children under age 10.

“With all the noise we have going on in our lives, creating that space to be still before God is very important,” he said.

Kerr finds that space in the contemplative worship and prayer forms practiced at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, where he is a deacon and regular participant in its Wednesday vespers service.

The result has been a shift in the way Kerr understands his relationship with God.

“I have gained a new appreciation for contemplative styles,” he said. “Just sitting and trying to be silent and feel and listen, as opposed to going to God with a list of things you need to pray for.”

Kerr isn’t alone, either as a Protestant or a Baptist, in his growing appreciation of ancient Christian spirituality.

Pastors, scholars and retreat center directors around the nation report a growing demand for services, programs and studies of contemplative prayer and worship.

The term ‘contemplative’ generally denotes worship, prayer and reading that lead participants into silent, meditative forms of engaging with God.

Where experts are seeing increasing interest in those forms, which include Taize and Lectio Divina, are among traditions seldom associated with the silent prayer, candle lighting and chanting that characterize much of the contemplative movement.

That includes Baptist churches, too, but she added it’s hard to put numbers on the movement.

It’s also hard to pinpoint how or where the movement began, she said. The likely cause was a mix of former Catholics and Episcopalians joining Protestant churches, Protestant ministers experiencing contemplative services during sabbaticals and the growing popularity of individual and group retreats to monasteries and spiritual retreat centers.

“They find it moving and bring it back to their churches,” she said.

“This is a very fluid area of what I call a very grassroots ecumenism,” Butler Bass added.

What they all find in common is a yearning for an experience of God that transcends rational and emotional concepts. “It’s creating sacred space in which people can actually feel, touch and listen to God in their midst.”

‘Priesthood of all believers’

That’s what Michael Sciretti’s ministry at Freemason Street Baptist Church is all about.

As the spiritual formation minister at the Norfolk, Va., church, Sciretti has been introducing elements of contemplative spiritual practices throughout congregational life, from deacon’s meetings to Wednesday night services.

In October, the church will launch a full blown, monthly contemplative Sunday worship service.

And yes, Sciretti said, it is a Baptist thing to do.

The direct connection established between worshiper and God in contemplative spirituality reflects the Baptist emphasis on congregational autonomy, he said.

“We talk about the ‘priesthood of all believers, and this (contemplative worship) takes that seriously,” he said. Such forms also “take seriously Paul’s teaching that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.”

Whatever the reason, Sciretti said he’s hearing of other Cooperative Baptist churches, or of groups within those churches, studying or experimenting with contemplative worship and prayer.

Honoring the Sabbath

It’s also biblical because it adheres to God’s command to observe the Sabbath, said Linda Ashe, director of The Well Retreat Center, a Catholic Church-owned get-away in Smithville, Va.

Many Christians have forgotten what it means to set aside a day for God, as commanded in the Bible.

“It’s a time when you try not to mention work, let alone do any work, ” Ashe said.

The contemplative prayer practices taught at the center help accomplish that – even if the practice is only for just a few minutes there and there throughout the week, she said.

Demand is way up from Baptist and other Protestant groups hungry for those experiences, Ashe said.

“It’s so refreshing,” she said. “It’s a time when we . . . get our reservoirs filled up so we can face that life we live.”

“I felt there was a need in the middle of the week to slow down and reflect,” Beasley said. “I heard people saying ‘I need to be quiet and still.’”

The service has been well attended and inspired him to lead a workshop on contemplative Wednesdays during the 2012 CBF Assembly in Fort Worth. It drew dozens despite its off-site location.

Such services are a practical necessity in congregations where missional and social justice ministries are the focus, as they are at Broadway, Beasley noted.

“If you are going to be out there in the you really need to have that time of tending the fire within,” he said.

]]>An ancient form of worship, contemplative prayer is making a comeback in Baptist churches.

By Jeff Brumley

Terms like “silence and reflection,” “creating space” and “getting in touch with yourself” were absent from Chad Kerr’s Baptist upbringing in Georgia. But they’ve since become central to his ability to cope with the demands of life as a bank president, husband and father of three children under age 10.

“With all the noise we have going on in our lives, creating that space to be still before God is very important,” he said.

Kerr finds that space in the contemplative worship and prayer forms practiced at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, where he is a deacon and regular participant in its Wednesday vespers service.

The result has been a shift in the way Kerr understands his relationship with God.

“I have gained a new appreciation for contemplative styles,” he said. “Just sitting and trying to be silent and feel and listen, as opposed to going to God with a list of things you need to pray for.”

Kerr isn’t alone, either as a Protestant or a Baptist, in his growing appreciation of ancient Christian spirituality.

Pastors, scholars and retreat center directors around the nation report a growing demand for services, programs and studies of contemplative prayer and worship.

The term ‘contemplative’ generally denotes worship, prayer and reading that lead participants into silent, meditative forms of engaging with God.

Where experts are seeing increasing interest in those forms, which include Taize and Lectio Divina, are among traditions seldom associated with the silent prayer, candle lighting and chanting that characterize much of the contemplative movement.

That includes Baptist churches, too, but she added it’s hard to put numbers on the movement.

It’s also hard to pinpoint how or where the movement began, she said. The likely cause was a mix of former Catholics and Episcopalians joining Protestant churches, Protestant ministers experiencing contemplative services during sabbaticals and the growing popularity of individual and group retreats to monasteries and spiritual retreat centers.

“They find it moving and bring it back to their churches,” she said.

“This is a very fluid area of what I call a very grassroots ecumenism,” Butler Bass added.

What they all find in common is a yearning for an experience of God that transcends rational and emotional concepts. “It’s creating sacred space in which people can actually feel, touch and listen to God in their midst.”

‘Priesthood of all believers’

That’s what Michael Sciretti’s ministry at Freemason Street Baptist Church is all about.

As the spiritual formation minister at the Norfolk, Va., church, Sciretti has been introducing elements of contemplative spiritual practices throughout congregational life, from deacon’s meetings to Wednesday night services.

In October, the church will launch a full blown, monthly contemplative Sunday worship service.

And yes, Sciretti said, it is a Baptist thing to do.

The direct connection established between worshiper and God in contemplative spirituality reflects the Baptist emphasis on congregational autonomy, he said.

“We talk about the ‘priesthood of all believers, and this (contemplative worship) takes that seriously,” he said. Such forms also “take seriously Paul’s teaching that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.”

Whatever the reason, Sciretti said he’s hearing of other Cooperative Baptist churches, or of groups within those churches, studying or experimenting with contemplative worship and prayer.

Honoring the Sabbath

It’s also biblical because it adheres to God’s command to observe the Sabbath, said Linda Ashe, director of The Well Retreat Center, a Catholic Church-owned get-away in Smithville, Va.

Many Christians have forgotten what it means to set aside a day for God, as commanded in the Bible.

“It’s a time when you try not to mention work, let alone do any work, ” Ashe said.

The contemplative prayer practices taught at the center help accomplish that – even if the practice is only for just a few minutes there and there throughout the week, she said.

Demand is way up from Baptist and other Protestant groups hungry for those experiences, Ashe said.

“It’s so refreshing,” she said. “It’s a time when we . . . get our reservoirs filled up so we can face that life we live.”

Experts say contemplative worship fits naturally with Baptists' emphasis on the priesthood of the believer.

By Robert Dilday

While contemplative worship pushes some Baptists outside their comfort zone, the silence and meditation that characterize the increasingly popular approach to encountering God sit comfortably with historic Baptist values, according to several advocates of this ancient worship style.

“Contemplative worship is consistent with Baptist tradition, and it can enrich and enhance that tradition,” said Randy Ashcraft, pastor in residence at the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.

As part of his assignment to foster spiritual formation among Baptists in Virginia, Ashcraft regularly employs contemplative spiritual practices—most recently at a weekend retreat in Richmond that drew dozens and culminated in silent, meditative worship.

Baptist values such as the priesthood of the believer, the centrality of Jesus and a desire to be truly connected to God “all find a home easily in the contemplative worship tradition,” said Ashcraft.

In Waco, Texas, the pastor of DaySpring Baptist Church finds similar convergences.

“Baptists are people who have consistently desired personal connection with God, and the nature of the contemplative life is very much that God may be encountered personally,” said Pastor Eric Howell, whose congregation describes itself as “a Baptist church in the contemplative tradition.

“Another consistency is the belief that God is actually present and active in the worship service, and in the lives hearts of the worshipers, in a way that is not ultimately dependent on what happens from the microphone. Contemplative worship affirms the congregation’s participation in worship at the deepest level.”

Both Ashcraft and Howell say the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer—the quintessential Baptist insistence on humanity’s direct access to God through Jesus— makes contemplative worship a compelling spiritual exercise for Baptists.

Michael Sciretti, minister of spiritual formation at Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk, Va., shares that view. He calls the “unmediated experience of God” one of the root images of Christian spirituality.

“We need to reclaim the language of priesthood and that all of us are priests,” said Sciretti. “To say we are a priest means we have ‘temple’ duties and functions. (The Apostle) Paul teaches that the Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Jewish temple had chambers, the preeminent chamber being the Holy of Holies.

“Therefore, contemplative worship—or ‘con-templing’ worship—is about going into the innermost chamber to experience and encounter God in our own hearts.”

Sciretti developed that idea in a book, Entempling: Baptist Wisdom for Contemplative Prayer, that he edited with Blake Burleson, associate dean for undergraduate studies at Baylor University’s College of Arts and Sciences. The book is a compilation of writings by four centuries of Baptists, both well-known and obscure.

“The historical Baptist focus on experience with and relationship to the Divine Presence provides an important foundational element for contemplative prayer, meditation and worship,” said Burleson. “It is necessary for the contemplative (worshipper) to bring his or her presence into the Divine Presence.”

The “unmediated experience” is deeply rooted in the Baptist experience, said Bill Leonard, professor of Baptist studies and church history at Wake Forest University School of Divinity.

“The idea of the direct encounter of each individual with God through Christ lends itself to times of reflection, prayer and contemplative worship,” said Leonard. “One need only read (John) Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress to recognize the spirituality emphasized by 17-century Baptists.”

But, Leonard added, an inclination among Baptists in the American South toward evangelistic action— doing rather than being—probably diminished the value of contemplative worship in their eyes.

“Baptist emphasis on immediate Christian (evangelistic) activism has tended to minimize the sense of the contemplative in much of Baptist spirituality,” he said. “When I have taken Baptist students to monasteries, they always ask, ‘What are these monks doing to express their Christian witness?’ The monks explain that their life is their witness.”

Howell noted that for practicing silence is foreign to some Baptists—especially silence that is something other than “a prelude to what is really happening or silence as an indication that someone forgot their part.”

“At the heart of contemplative worship is the silence between words,” he said. “This can feel contradictory to a tradition that emphasizes the spoken and proclaimed Word. I see this as complementary, but someone unfamiliar with this approach to worship might be thrown off.”

But Ashcraft said that “contradiction” can be bridged.

“When I was growing up, everyone was encouraged to have a ‘quiet time’ intended to be an opportunity to be nurtured by Scripture, to listen to the voice of God, to respond to that voice, to engage in confession and, hopefully, to sense God’s purpose for one’s life,” he said. “That essentially describes the tradition of lectio divina”—an ancient Christian contemplative practice of Scripture reading, mediation and prayer.

Reclaiming that tradition in part motivated the Virginia Spirituality Institute, being developed by Ashcraft and Sciretti, along with two Richmond pastors, Drexel Rayford and Sammy Williams.

“Our aim is to be a resource, to provide education and opportunities for Baptists in Virginia and elsewhere to sense the fresh winds from contemplative worship,” he said. “We have found that it is rejuvenative and builds hope in the lives of individuals who sit in congregations each week.”

Howell offered a warning for Baptist church exploring contemplative worship.

“Please don’t make ‘contemplative’ the next brand or style of worship,” he said. “While we have discovered many young people hungering for the expression of worship and faith that we practice, churches need to understand the contemplative life is not a strategy to reach ‘emergent young people.’ It’s a way of life and posture toward God that may or may not attract people.

“The utility of the worship service becomes secondary to the encounter with the living God that happens when people slow down and listen and trust themselves and one another in God’s presence.”

]]>

Experts say contemplative worship fits naturally with Baptists' emphasis on the priesthood of the believer.

By Robert Dilday

While contemplative worship pushes some Baptists outside their comfort zone, the silence and meditation that characterize the increasingly popular approach to encountering God sit comfortably with historic Baptist values, according to several advocates of this ancient worship style.

“Contemplative worship is consistent with Baptist tradition, and it can enrich and enhance that tradition,” said Randy Ashcraft, pastor in residence at the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.

As part of his assignment to foster spiritual formation among Baptists in Virginia, Ashcraft regularly employs contemplative spiritual practices—most recently at a weekend retreat in Richmond that drew dozens and culminated in silent, meditative worship.

Baptist values such as the priesthood of the believer, the centrality of Jesus and a desire to be truly connected to God “all find a home easily in the contemplative worship tradition,” said Ashcraft.

In Waco, Texas, the pastor of DaySpring Baptist Church finds similar convergences.

“Baptists are people who have consistently desired personal connection with God, and the nature of the contemplative life is very much that God may be encountered personally,” said Pastor Eric Howell, whose congregation describes itself as “a Baptist church in the contemplative tradition.

“Another consistency is the belief that God is actually present and active in the worship service, and in the lives hearts of the worshipers, in a way that is not ultimately dependent on what happens from the microphone. Contemplative worship affirms the congregation’s participation in worship at the deepest level.”

Both Ashcraft and Howell say the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer—the quintessential Baptist insistence on humanity’s direct access to God through Jesus— makes contemplative worship a compelling spiritual exercise for Baptists.

Michael Sciretti, minister of spiritual formation at Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk, Va., shares that view. He calls the “unmediated experience of God” one of the root images of Christian spirituality.

“We need to reclaim the language of priesthood and that all of us are priests,” said Sciretti. “To say we are a priest means we have ‘temple’ duties and functions. (The Apostle) Paul teaches that the Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Jewish temple had chambers, the preeminent chamber being the Holy of Holies.

“Therefore, contemplative worship—or ‘con-templing’ worship—is about going into the innermost chamber to experience and encounter God in our own hearts.”

Sciretti developed that idea in a book, Entempling: Baptist Wisdom for Contemplative Prayer, that he edited with Blake Burleson, associate dean for undergraduate studies at Baylor University’s College of Arts and Sciences. The book is a compilation of writings by four centuries of Baptists, both well-known and obscure.

“The historical Baptist focus on experience with and relationship to the Divine Presence provides an important foundational element for contemplative prayer, meditation and worship,” said Burleson. “It is necessary for the contemplative (worshipper) to bring his or her presence into the Divine Presence.”

The “unmediated experience” is deeply rooted in the Baptist experience, said Bill Leonard, professor of Baptist studies and church history at Wake Forest University School of Divinity.

“The idea of the direct encounter of each individual with God through Christ lends itself to times of reflection, prayer and contemplative worship,” said Leonard. “One need only read (John) Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress to recognize the spirituality emphasized by 17-century Baptists.”

But, Leonard added, an inclination among Baptists in the American South toward evangelistic action— doing rather than being—probably diminished the value of contemplative worship in their eyes.

“Baptist emphasis on immediate Christian (evangelistic) activism has tended to minimize the sense of the contemplative in much of Baptist spirituality,” he said. “When I have taken Baptist students to monasteries, they always ask, ‘What are these monks doing to express their Christian witness?’ The monks explain that their life is their witness.”

Howell noted that for practicing silence is foreign to some Baptists—especially silence that is something other than “a prelude to what is really happening or silence as an indication that someone forgot their part.”

“At the heart of contemplative worship is the silence between words,” he said. “This can feel contradictory to a tradition that emphasizes the spoken and proclaimed Word. I see this as complementary, but someone unfamiliar with this approach to worship might be thrown off.”

But Ashcraft said that “contradiction” can be bridged.

“When I was growing up, everyone was encouraged to have a ‘quiet time’ intended to be an opportunity to be nurtured by Scripture, to listen to the voice of God, to respond to that voice, to engage in confession and, hopefully, to sense God’s purpose for one’s life,” he said. “That essentially describes the tradition of lectio divina”—an ancient Christian contemplative practice of Scripture reading, mediation and prayer.

Reclaiming that tradition in part motivated the Virginia Spirituality Institute, being developed by Ashcraft and Sciretti, along with two Richmond pastors, Drexel Rayford and Sammy Williams.

“Our aim is to be a resource, to provide education and opportunities for Baptists in Virginia and elsewhere to sense the fresh winds from contemplative worship,” he said. “We have found that it is rejuvenative and builds hope in the lives of individuals who sit in congregations each week.”

Howell offered a warning for Baptist church exploring contemplative worship.

“Please don’t make ‘contemplative’ the next brand or style of worship,” he said. “While we have discovered many young people hungering for the expression of worship and faith that we practice, churches need to understand the contemplative life is not a strategy to reach ‘emergent young people.’ It’s a way of life and posture toward God that may or may not attract people.

“The utility of the worship service becomes secondary to the encounter with the living God that happens when people slow down and listen and trust themselves and one another in God’s presence.”

Scott Stevens, former student director at LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, has been named publisher of BaptistWay Press, publishing arm of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Stevens, who has both a master’s degree and doctorate from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, succeeds Ross West, publisher of the curriculum provider launched in 2000, who retired earlier this year.

“BaptistWay Press has been serving Texas Baptists and the world for 12 years,” Chris Liebrum, head of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Education/Discipleship Center, said in a press release. “We look forward to Scott coming and building on the excellent foundation that Ross West built.”

Liebrum said Stevens brings many skills to the position, including experience in publishing, a strong academic background and a lifelong knowledge of Texas Baptists.

BaptistWay Press, which develops undated, quarterly-based studies for preschool, children, youth, college students and adults, is produced primarily by and for Texas Baptists, but it has customers across the country who use it as one alternative to curriculum published by LifeWay, publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Many former users found LifeWay curriculum growing too conservative for their tastes in the late 1980s and 1990s, and even more so after the Southern Baptist Convention amended its official confession of faith in 2000 to prescribe traditional roles for women in the church and home.

BaptistWay introduced its adult curriculum in March 2000, followed by preschool and children’s literature added in 2003 and for youth in 2004-05. It now offers materials in seven languages and last year started offering Bible studies in a format that is downloadable to an e-reader, smart phone, computer or tablet.

Stevens worked six years at LifeWay before leaving in December 2011. Before that he taught youth ministry at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, and served on church staffs in Texas and Tennessee.

Scott Stevens, former student director at LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, has been named publisher of BaptistWay Press, publishing arm of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Stevens, who has both a master’s degree and doctorate from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, succeeds Ross West, publisher of the curriculum provider launched in 2000, who retired earlier this year.

“BaptistWay Press has been serving Texas Baptists and the world for 12 years,” Chris Liebrum, head of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Education/Discipleship Center, said in a press release. “We look forward to Scott coming and building on the excellent foundation that Ross West built.”

Liebrum said Stevens brings many skills to the position, including experience in publishing, a strong academic background and a lifelong knowledge of Texas Baptists.

BaptistWay Press, which develops undated, quarterly-based studies for preschool, children, youth, college students and adults, is produced primarily by and for Texas Baptists, but it has customers across the country who use it as one alternative to curriculum published by LifeWay, publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Many former users found LifeWay curriculum growing too conservative for their tastes in the late 1980s and 1990s, and even more so after the Southern Baptist Convention amended its official confession of faith in 2000 to prescribe traditional roles for women in the church and home.

BaptistWay introduced its adult curriculum in March 2000, followed by preschool and children’s literature added in 2003 and for youth in 2004-05. It now offers materials in seven languages and last year started offering Bible studies in a format that is downloadable to an e-reader, smart phone, computer or tablet.

Stevens worked six years at LifeWay before leaving in December 2011. Before that he taught youth ministry at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, and served on church staffs in Texas and Tennessee.

]]>Bob AllenOrganizationsThu, 02 Aug 2012 14:27:07 -0400Women seek God’s will at home, churchhttp://baptistnews.com/faith/theology/item/7457-women-seek-god’s-will-at-home-church
http://baptistnews.com/faith/theology/item/7457-women-seek-god’s-will-at-home-churchFour individuals share how God directed them to either an egalitarian or complementarian view and how they live out their family’s calling.

By Vicki Brown

Married nearly five years, Courtney Fenton of Hannibal, Mo., wanted to be married but wasn’t sure she wanted to have children. But the day she married, “something switched” in her brain and the desire for little ones grew. Now with a 2-year-old boy and a 3-month-old girl, Fenton is a stay-at-home mom.

“I wanted to be in control of how they were raised,” she said. “For me, it was a choice.”

She and her husband, Tim, decided together to follow the “complementarian” interpretation of Scripture – the idea that males and females are created for different and complementary roles. Tim is head of the family and the breadwinner, while Courtney cares for the children and the home.

They’ve had to make some economic sacrifices. The Fentons have no television and no Internet access on their computer. They plan shopping trips and don’t make spur-of-the-moment purchases. Giving up some things is “worth it,” Courtney said, to be able to stay at home with her children, Fenton said. “To be there, living with my kids is more satisfying than stuff.”

Fenton, who has a degree in communications, started her career with a public relations firm, but she “hated it.” Though she had a better PR experience with a not-for-profit Christian camp, she said she doubts she will return to the field.

She doesn’t regret earning her degree, though. “Education is vital to my children,” she said. “It helps that I went to school and had those experiences.” In fact she may seek a degree in education in the future. “It would help my family and would be an option later,” she said.

The church she attends has strongly supported her family’s decision. Most of the 20- to 30-something families at Believers Church in Hannibal have chosen a similar path, and the women have developed a support group.

Becoming a ‘Mr. Mom’ household

Like Fenton, Rebekah “Becki” Johnston of Lawrence, Kan., didn’t envision herself as a mother. She knew she wanted to marry husband Chad, but felt that she would find life’s fulfillment in her career. She holds a master’s degree in physician assistant studies, which she earned before getting married, and works in primary care.

She didn’t plan to have children because she “didn’t fit the standard role of mom as cook/cleaner/arts-and-craft maker, etc.,” she said. Her husband fits that bill in the family, and his gifts fill the gaps in her own.

Johnston struggled with the decision because she grew up in a “very traditional” Lutheran church. “Growing up in a church that did not allow women to preach or vote in the church made me feel that I was somehow rebelling against God,” she said.

But as she grew closer to the Lord, she said, God showed her how she could minister to others through her work.

“I realized that God gave me my gifts for a reason,” she said. “Had I tried to fit into the mold of a stay-at-home mom, I wouldn’t be able to use the gifts God gave me in the best way possible.”

She recently took a new position so that she would become the primary breadwinner, and her husband will stay home with the couple’s daughter. “The gifts that God did not give to me, He instead gave to my husband, and I feel confident that our atypical situation is what God intended for us,” she said. Her husband will take over duties on the home front in September.

Members at First Baptist Church in Lawrence support the Johnstons’ decision. “The feeling of the church is … a happy family at home will only benefit our larger church family,” she said.

Study changes a mind

Candi Finch of Fort Worth was a self-described feminist until she said God used women’s studies at Southeastern and Southwestern Baptist Theological seminaries to lead her to embrace a complementarian view of gender roles in the church and home.

As a college sophomore, she took a class in gender and communication under a “radical feminist” professor who declared that if the women in class did not consider themselves as feminists, they were lying to themselves. She was drawn to the message of “first- and second-generation” feminists -- equal pay for equal work and women’s right to vote -- and started reading everything feminists wrote.

She rejected the secular idea that the Bible is the “greatest source of oppression,” but felt “feminists were right about some things that the church should support.”

Committed to ministry since her junior year in high school, she headed to Southeastern, where she earned a master-of-divinity degree with a concentration in women’s studies and where Dorothy Patterson taught at the time. In biblical theology of womanhood, she examined all passages about women from Genesis to Revelation.

The deeper she delved into Scripture, the more convinced she became that God was moving her to a complementarian understanding.

“I appreciate complementarianism because it dealt with the actual text more,” she said. “The other view dealt with culture rather than the Greek. … Complementarianism is more faithful to the biblical text and hermeneutics.”

Finch sees complementarians as divided over being a stay-at-home mom or having a career, and believes the choice isn’t “biblically mandated,” she said.

Currently she is an associate professor in women’s studies at Southwestern Seminary and Patterson’s assistant as she finishes a doctorate degree. She’s single, but plans to stay at home when God blesses her with a family.

Feeding the soul makes a better mom

Virginia White of Richmond, Va., grew up in an “incredibly conservative” Baptist church in Louisiana that nearly blocked her desire to attend seminary. Now she serves as chaplain in a senior care facility. Like Finch, college professors influenced her view of gender roles, which she sees as a blend of egalitarianism and complementarianism.

She attended Rose College, a Presbyterian school, intending to major in physics. But after a taste of required religion courses, she switched majors, and a professor encouraged her to seek a seminary degree. Because leaders at her church would not write an endorsement letter, she had to join another congregation.

At the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, she met husband Mark. “I was on an academic track, headed for a Ph.D. I had determined not to marry a pastor,” she laughed. “And Mark didn’t want to marry while he was in seminary.”

The couple completed master’s of divinity and theology degrees together. Now they have two small children, and her husband is pastor of Chamberlain Baptist Church in Hanover County.

Although she admits she struggles with the guilt of being a working mom, White believes pursuing her career is the right decision for her family. “Because I use my brain in ways that feed my soul … I’m a much better mom,” she said. “When I am with my children, I’m completely theirs.”

She keeps her perspective by concentrating on symmetry, rather than balance. “Balance sets up failure,” she explained. “I see life as symmetrical lines, a symmetry that ebbs and flows.” She picks up the slack when he studies and prepares for sermons, and he picks up what needs to be done when her job demands extra attention.

White believes men and women are equal before God and that she and Mark “can do whatever it is that God has called us to do,” she said. “But it’s important for me to complement Mark’s ministry. … The church needs that and Mark needs that. … It’s more about being there for my husband because I love him, not because of my credentials.”

Their church sometimes takes a mixed approach, as well. “I think they would like it more if I didn’t work … to be available to Mark and to help out around the church,” she said.

Yet, “they love to see us lead worship together,” she added. White filled in for about six months while the church was without an associate pastor last year.

]]>Four individuals share how God directed them to either an egalitarian or complementarian view and how they live out their family’s calling.

By Vicki Brown

Married nearly five years, Courtney Fenton of Hannibal, Mo., wanted to be married but wasn’t sure she wanted to have children. But the day she married, “something switched” in her brain and the desire for little ones grew. Now with a 2-year-old boy and a 3-month-old girl, Fenton is a stay-at-home mom.

“I wanted to be in control of how they were raised,” she said. “For me, it was a choice.”

She and her husband, Tim, decided together to follow the “complementarian” interpretation of Scripture – the idea that males and females are created for different and complementary roles. Tim is head of the family and the breadwinner, while Courtney cares for the children and the home.

They’ve had to make some economic sacrifices. The Fentons have no television and no Internet access on their computer. They plan shopping trips and don’t make spur-of-the-moment purchases. Giving up some things is “worth it,” Courtney said, to be able to stay at home with her children, Fenton said. “To be there, living with my kids is more satisfying than stuff.”

Fenton, who has a degree in communications, started her career with a public relations firm, but she “hated it.” Though she had a better PR experience with a not-for-profit Christian camp, she said she doubts she will return to the field.

She doesn’t regret earning her degree, though. “Education is vital to my children,” she said. “It helps that I went to school and had those experiences.” In fact she may seek a degree in education in the future. “It would help my family and would be an option later,” she said.

The church she attends has strongly supported her family’s decision. Most of the 20- to 30-something families at Believers Church in Hannibal have chosen a similar path, and the women have developed a support group.

Becoming a ‘Mr. Mom’ household

Like Fenton, Rebekah “Becki” Johnston of Lawrence, Kan., didn’t envision herself as a mother. She knew she wanted to marry husband Chad, but felt that she would find life’s fulfillment in her career. She holds a master’s degree in physician assistant studies, which she earned before getting married, and works in primary care.

She didn’t plan to have children because she “didn’t fit the standard role of mom as cook/cleaner/arts-and-craft maker, etc.,” she said. Her husband fits that bill in the family, and his gifts fill the gaps in her own.

Johnston struggled with the decision because she grew up in a “very traditional” Lutheran church. “Growing up in a church that did not allow women to preach or vote in the church made me feel that I was somehow rebelling against God,” she said.

But as she grew closer to the Lord, she said, God showed her how she could minister to others through her work.

“I realized that God gave me my gifts for a reason,” she said. “Had I tried to fit into the mold of a stay-at-home mom, I wouldn’t be able to use the gifts God gave me in the best way possible.”

She recently took a new position so that she would become the primary breadwinner, and her husband will stay home with the couple’s daughter. “The gifts that God did not give to me, He instead gave to my husband, and I feel confident that our atypical situation is what God intended for us,” she said. Her husband will take over duties on the home front in September.

Members at First Baptist Church in Lawrence support the Johnstons’ decision. “The feeling of the church is … a happy family at home will only benefit our larger church family,” she said.

Study changes a mind

Candi Finch of Fort Worth was a self-described feminist until she said God used women’s studies at Southeastern and Southwestern Baptist Theological seminaries to lead her to embrace a complementarian view of gender roles in the church and home.

As a college sophomore, she took a class in gender and communication under a “radical feminist” professor who declared that if the women in class did not consider themselves as feminists, they were lying to themselves. She was drawn to the message of “first- and second-generation” feminists -- equal pay for equal work and women’s right to vote -- and started reading everything feminists wrote.

She rejected the secular idea that the Bible is the “greatest source of oppression,” but felt “feminists were right about some things that the church should support.”

Committed to ministry since her junior year in high school, she headed to Southeastern, where she earned a master-of-divinity degree with a concentration in women’s studies and where Dorothy Patterson taught at the time. In biblical theology of womanhood, she examined all passages about women from Genesis to Revelation.

The deeper she delved into Scripture, the more convinced she became that God was moving her to a complementarian understanding.

“I appreciate complementarianism because it dealt with the actual text more,” she said. “The other view dealt with culture rather than the Greek. … Complementarianism is more faithful to the biblical text and hermeneutics.”

Finch sees complementarians as divided over being a stay-at-home mom or having a career, and believes the choice isn’t “biblically mandated,” she said.

Currently she is an associate professor in women’s studies at Southwestern Seminary and Patterson’s assistant as she finishes a doctorate degree. She’s single, but plans to stay at home when God blesses her with a family.

Feeding the soul makes a better mom

Virginia White of Richmond, Va., grew up in an “incredibly conservative” Baptist church in Louisiana that nearly blocked her desire to attend seminary. Now she serves as chaplain in a senior care facility. Like Finch, college professors influenced her view of gender roles, which she sees as a blend of egalitarianism and complementarianism.

She attended Rose College, a Presbyterian school, intending to major in physics. But after a taste of required religion courses, she switched majors, and a professor encouraged her to seek a seminary degree. Because leaders at her church would not write an endorsement letter, she had to join another congregation.

At the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, she met husband Mark. “I was on an academic track, headed for a Ph.D. I had determined not to marry a pastor,” she laughed. “And Mark didn’t want to marry while he was in seminary.”

The couple completed master’s of divinity and theology degrees together. Now they have two small children, and her husband is pastor of Chamberlain Baptist Church in Hanover County.

Although she admits she struggles with the guilt of being a working mom, White believes pursuing her career is the right decision for her family. “Because I use my brain in ways that feed my soul … I’m a much better mom,” she said. “When I am with my children, I’m completely theirs.”

She keeps her perspective by concentrating on symmetry, rather than balance. “Balance sets up failure,” she explained. “I see life as symmetrical lines, a symmetry that ebbs and flows.” She picks up the slack when he studies and prepares for sermons, and he picks up what needs to be done when her job demands extra attention.

White believes men and women are equal before God and that she and Mark “can do whatever it is that God has called us to do,” she said. “But it’s important for me to complement Mark’s ministry. … The church needs that and Mark needs that. … It’s more about being there for my husband because I love him, not because of my credentials.”

Their church sometimes takes a mixed approach, as well. “I think they would like it more if I didn’t work … to be available to Mark and to help out around the church,” she said.

Yet, “they love to see us lead worship together,” she added. White filled in for about six months while the church was without an associate pastor last year.

]]>Vicki BrownTheologyFri, 25 May 2012 15:16:11 -0400Your church has committed to staying put. Now what?http://baptistnews.com/ministry/congregations/item/7367-your-church-has-committed-to-staying-put
http://baptistnews.com/ministry/congregations/item/7367-your-church-has-committed-to-staying-putChoosing to remain in its downtown setting may be one of the most significant decisions a church makes. But that's not the end of the story, according to pastors of several central city congregations, who suggested several next steps.

By Robert Dilday

Begin with low-hanging fruit. "Start small with block parties, trunk or treats, Easter egg hunts and Valentine's dances," said Bill Shiell, pastor of First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn. "Then reflect on your success and build on it. Most great neighborhood partnerships begin with wins."

Understand the context. "Learn your community and fall in love with it," said Tom Ogburn, pastor of First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Remaining downtown "is not a death sentence. It's a gift of life."

Describe the community's strengths from the pulpit, said Bill Shiell, pastor of First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn. "I've found that inviting community leaders to the church, telling stories and finding great visible examples become a way to help baptize the imagination with possibilities."

Maintain excellence. "In most large cities, whatever a person is interested in is being done at a world-class level," said Steve Wells, pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Houston. Churches should aim for the same standard, he said.

In downtown churches, which often have a long history, that high standard often is reflected in its music, said George Bullard, strategic coordinator for the Columbia Partnership, a church consultancy. "Because of their heritage, they tend to have an excellent music ministry, which they work hard to sustain," he said. Musical excellence may be enhanced by a downtown church's sanctuary, which may be 50 years old or more, acoustically strong and include a pipe organ.

"The default standard in worship styles for Baptist churches is contemporary," said Wells. "Because of our architecture and the size of our city and our location in it, we do things a little differently. We have a robed choir, a pipe organ and instrumentalists. We're pretty traditional, and the caliber of music we do is high."

Partner with a nonprofit. Both First Baptist in Knoxville and Third Baptist Church in St. Louis found value in collaboration with Dallas-based Bucker International. "They gave us tools and resources we didn't have before," Shiell said. "They taught us and trained us in asset mapping, community resourcing and becoming more focused on the needs of the community."

"We did an extensive community needs survey with the help of Buckner," said Warren Hoffman, pastor of Third Baptist. What emerged was a much clearer understanding of potential ministries in the church's neighborhood.

Treat facilities as essential ministry tools. "We have intentionally paid attention to the needs of our public spaces," said Hoffman. "Several years ago, many areas of our building looked tired and haggard—a little like Macy's clearance basement. We invested in not only beautifying but intentionally developing ways for the spaces to work for outreach and for use in the community."

]]>Choosing to remain in its downtown setting may be one of the most significant decisions a church makes. But that's not the end of the story, according to pastors of several central city congregations, who suggested several next steps.

By Robert Dilday

Begin with low-hanging fruit. "Start small with block parties, trunk or treats, Easter egg hunts and Valentine's dances," said Bill Shiell, pastor of First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn. "Then reflect on your success and build on it. Most great neighborhood partnerships begin with wins."

Understand the context. "Learn your community and fall in love with it," said Tom Ogburn, pastor of First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Remaining downtown "is not a death sentence. It's a gift of life."

Describe the community's strengths from the pulpit, said Bill Shiell, pastor of First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn. "I've found that inviting community leaders to the church, telling stories and finding great visible examples become a way to help baptize the imagination with possibilities."

Maintain excellence. "In most large cities, whatever a person is interested in is being done at a world-class level," said Steve Wells, pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Houston. Churches should aim for the same standard, he said.

In downtown churches, which often have a long history, that high standard often is reflected in its music, said George Bullard, strategic coordinator for the Columbia Partnership, a church consultancy. "Because of their heritage, they tend to have an excellent music ministry, which they work hard to sustain," he said. Musical excellence may be enhanced by a downtown church's sanctuary, which may be 50 years old or more, acoustically strong and include a pipe organ.

"The default standard in worship styles for Baptist churches is contemporary," said Wells. "Because of our architecture and the size of our city and our location in it, we do things a little differently. We have a robed choir, a pipe organ and instrumentalists. We're pretty traditional, and the caliber of music we do is high."

Partner with a nonprofit. Both First Baptist in Knoxville and Third Baptist Church in St. Louis found value in collaboration with Dallas-based Bucker International. "They gave us tools and resources we didn't have before," Shiell said. "They taught us and trained us in asset mapping, community resourcing and becoming more focused on the needs of the community."

"We did an extensive community needs survey with the help of Buckner," said Warren Hoffman, pastor of Third Baptist. What emerged was a much clearer understanding of potential ministries in the church's neighborhood.

Treat facilities as essential ministry tools. "We have intentionally paid attention to the needs of our public spaces," said Hoffman. "Several years ago, many areas of our building looked tired and haggard—a little like Macy's clearance basement. We invested in not only beautifying but intentionally developing ways for the spaces to work for outreach and for use in the community."

Eighty percent of success is showing up, film director Woody Allen once said. Increasing numbers of downtown churches have discovered a high percentage of successful ministry is staying put.

By Robert Dilday

Committed to "blooming where they're planted," these congregations have developed vibrant ministry to their in-town communities. And remaining there is integral to their identity and the way they engage God's mission.

Downtown churches are an idea whose time has come, some observe. The revitalization of America's urban cores and the migration of people to renovated downtown apartments and condominiums have positioned these congregations in some of the country's most energetic neighborhoods.

• Third Baptist Church sits in the heart of St. Louis's Grand Center arts and entertainment neighborhood, near the city's Loft District.

• The Church at Clarendon, in highly-urbanized Arlington, Va., is a few miles from the White House and surrounded by thriving restaurants and galleries, across the street from a busy subway station.

• A nearby light-rail station also energizes Houston's South Main Baptist Church, adjacent to Midtown's museums, universities and sprawling medical center.

• Oklahoma City's First Baptist Church, which moved in the early 20th century to its current location because noise from adjacent trolley tracks was disrupting worship, now finds itself on a proposed light-rail line in the city's booming center.

"We're at the center of the most vibrant community in the world," Pastor Steve Wells from South Main Baptist said of his Houston congregation. "We're surrounded by incredibly bright people who are making a difference in the way the world works."

It wasn't always so. For two decades beginning in the 1960s, white flight, racial tensions and deteriorating central cities left many downtown churches isolated and their members living in distant suburbs. Congregations that remained often faced dwindling attendance.

But during that stagnant period, many of these churches chose to stay where they were.

"Staying put while everyone else is leaving takes courage," said Warren Hoffman, pastor of Third Baptist. "There was a time in the 1970s when Third Baptist was the only building not boarded up for a two-block radius."

And despite recent downtown renaissances, the challenges of urban life remain—overused infrastructure, poor public schools and homeless populations.

The slogan adopted by Hoffman's congregation—"Third Baptist Church Is in the City for Good"—is a strong faith statement in the face of past and present challenging circumstances.

Intentionally urban

Intentionality about remaining downtown is a common strand in these churches' stories. In almost every case, each congregation seriously considered—sometime more than once—a move to the suburbs, and each determined to stay in its setting.

In 2000, for instance, The Church at Clarendon "was in deep decline and struggling with a vision," Interim Senior Pastor David Perdue said."The church had other options" than staying, he said. "At one point, the property was valued at $13 million. We could have moved to the suburbs. But we wanted to do something for the community.

"First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., decided in 1975 to remain at its location," Pastor Bill Shiell said."The church had moved from downtown to uptown and built its current sanctuary in 1924," said Shiell, a graduate of Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary. "They were not up for another move."

Tom Ogburn, pastor of First Baptist in Oklahoma City, said the congregation voted in the 1980s and again in 2003 to remain where they had been since 1912."For us, that decision wasn't a death sentence. It was a gift of life," Ogburn said. "It's not an urban challenge; it's a call from God. This is where God has placed us."

Unquestionably, heritage and valued memories were factors in those decisions to stay. Many downtown churches are more than 100 years old—some considerably older than that—and heritage can be a strong motivation for remaining in cherished locations, said George Bullard, strategic coordinator for the Columbia Partnership, a church consultancy.

"They have a historic mantle of leadership and are justifiably proud of their heritage," Bullard said.

Their vibrant past often makes them historically significant to their denominations as well, he added, and their sanctuaries may be closely associated with key denominational figures, such as Theodore F. Adams at First Baptist in Richmond or Herschel Hobbs at First Baptist in Oklahoma City.

But alongside—and sometimes trumping—reverence for the past is a clear sense of calling to city centers, these pastors note, and a passion to engage their communities in the 21st century.

"This is where God has called us to be," Wells said regarding South Main Baptist in Houston.

Range of ministries

The churches' sense of call to their community has spawned a breathtaking array of ministries to the marginalized, to refugees, to commuters in downtown office blocks and to nearby apartment dwellers.

• Matching the church's strengths to its neighbors needs was key to developing ministries at First Baptist in Knoxville.

"Most people ask: 'What do they need? What are the problems? What are the solutions?'" Shiell said. "We have tried to ask, 'What are our strengths, and where do they match with a need?'"

The result included The Bridge, a mid-week Bible study for the business community that has developed features of executive coaching for "businesses and executives who want to take the next step in their faith at work"; a mentoring partnership—KidsHope USA—with children at a nearby elementary school; and the nonprofit Heart of Knoxville, which aims to partner with businesses, corporations, foundations and individuals to expand the church's resources for ministry. Last year, Heart of Knoxville served 600 homeless and working poor families, said Shiell. This year it hopes to expand the church's new food co-op.

"We're in the middle of an initiative now called 'Seek the Peace of Knoxville' that will be both a revival and an invitation to relocate downtown," Shiell said.

• In Oklahoma City, First Baptist took a cue from its past to guide ministry in the present. In its century of existence, the church had started 63 new congregations and been actively involved with refugees.

"Part of our task has been to call the church back to those places where God has called us in the past and find similar opportunities today," Ogburn said.

Currently, four congregations in addition to the original one worship in First Baptist's facilities— United Myanmar Baptist Church; New Life Baptist Church, a Hispanic congregation; Sudanese Christian Fellowship; and Convergence Church, an emergent community of faith.

A sixth congregation—All African Baptist Church—is being developed in a partnership with the Ghana Baptist Convention, the national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and its Oklahoma affiliate, and NorthHaven Church in Norman, Okla., a congregation affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

In the 1960s, as Oklahoma City's downtown deteriorated, First Baptist created Good Shepherd Ministries of Oklahoma to distribute food and clothing. It began offering medical services in 1975 and dental treatment in 1980. Seven years ago, Good Shepherd became an independent nonprofit organization, while retaining close ties to First Baptist. Ogburn said the group soon will hear a response to its application for a significant grant from a local foundation which will permit the facility's expansion and the medical clinic to be operated full time.

• In addition to ministry with thousands of homeless men and women on Houston streets, South Main set its sights on the Texas Medical Center and its 50 member institutions, about two miles south of the church.

"We own 20 apartments and coordinate another 100 apartments for people who come to the center for long-term medical care," Wells said. Church members clean the units and assist the families living there temporarily.

The church also discovered an unexpected need among the homeless, he said. When their few possessions were stolen—not uncommon for those living on the streets—they often lost documents necessary to get a job. The church helps them replace the necessary birth certificates and identification cards.

Facilities as God's gifts

Undergirding these churches' ministries are sizable and often architecturally elaborate buildings. Most were built decades ago and require extensive maintenance. But instead of a drain on resources, the churches see their building as gifts which offer unforeseen possibilities.

"God has gifted us with a 180,000-square-foot building," Ogburn said. "The building is a gift from God, but we had to choose to see it that way. You can choose to let a building weigh you down or make it a gift of God."

In Knoxville, First Baptist's 1924 blend of English Renaissance and Romanesque architecture "is what God has given us, and it's gorgeous," said Shiell. "There's nothing like it."

"Having a large building that has generous and big spaces is a tremendous benefit," Hoffman said of Third Baptist's streamlined Gothic building with a distinctive retro neon sign. At 115,000 square feet, Third Baptist "offers potential for revenue as we lease some spaces, including our parking lot, which is a premium value in the city center."

"The sanctuary is breathtaking," he added. "They just don't build worship centers like this anymore. It is in demand as a concert venue, and congregational worship and music is fantastic due to the acoustics."

Those facilities come with a cost, but it's one church leaders agreed they're willing to pay.

"The generation that didn't build the building and care for it doesn't share in the maintenance and upkeep," said Shiell. "So, we're working on developing an endowment for facilities to bridge that gap."

Despite the expense, Wells said of South Main Baptist, "We have a remarkable space, and we can honor God and do kingdom work that we couldn't do without it."

It's that kingdom work which brings the greatest satisfaction, said Ogburn.

"This is the most fun I've ever had in church," he said. "I can't imagine being anywhere else."

]]>

Eighty percent of success is showing up, film director Woody Allen once said. Increasing numbers of downtown churches have discovered a high percentage of successful ministry is staying put.

By Robert Dilday

Committed to "blooming where they're planted," these congregations have developed vibrant ministry to their in-town communities. And remaining there is integral to their identity and the way they engage God's mission.

Downtown churches are an idea whose time has come, some observe. The revitalization of America's urban cores and the migration of people to renovated downtown apartments and condominiums have positioned these congregations in some of the country's most energetic neighborhoods.

• Third Baptist Church sits in the heart of St. Louis's Grand Center arts and entertainment neighborhood, near the city's Loft District.

• The Church at Clarendon, in highly-urbanized Arlington, Va., is a few miles from the White House and surrounded by thriving restaurants and galleries, across the street from a busy subway station.

• A nearby light-rail station also energizes Houston's South Main Baptist Church, adjacent to Midtown's museums, universities and sprawling medical center.

• Oklahoma City's First Baptist Church, which moved in the early 20th century to its current location because noise from adjacent trolley tracks was disrupting worship, now finds itself on a proposed light-rail line in the city's booming center.

"We're at the center of the most vibrant community in the world," Pastor Steve Wells from South Main Baptist said of his Houston congregation. "We're surrounded by incredibly bright people who are making a difference in the way the world works."

It wasn't always so. For two decades beginning in the 1960s, white flight, racial tensions and deteriorating central cities left many downtown churches isolated and their members living in distant suburbs. Congregations that remained often faced dwindling attendance.

But during that stagnant period, many of these churches chose to stay where they were.

"Staying put while everyone else is leaving takes courage," said Warren Hoffman, pastor of Third Baptist. "There was a time in the 1970s when Third Baptist was the only building not boarded up for a two-block radius."

And despite recent downtown renaissances, the challenges of urban life remain—overused infrastructure, poor public schools and homeless populations.

The slogan adopted by Hoffman's congregation—"Third Baptist Church Is in the City for Good"—is a strong faith statement in the face of past and present challenging circumstances.

Intentionally urban

Intentionality about remaining downtown is a common strand in these churches' stories. In almost every case, each congregation seriously considered—sometime more than once—a move to the suburbs, and each determined to stay in its setting.

In 2000, for instance, The Church at Clarendon "was in deep decline and struggling with a vision," Interim Senior Pastor David Perdue said."The church had other options" than staying, he said. "At one point, the property was valued at $13 million. We could have moved to the suburbs. But we wanted to do something for the community.

"First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., decided in 1975 to remain at its location," Pastor Bill Shiell said."The church had moved from downtown to uptown and built its current sanctuary in 1924," said Shiell, a graduate of Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary. "They were not up for another move."

Tom Ogburn, pastor of First Baptist in Oklahoma City, said the congregation voted in the 1980s and again in 2003 to remain where they had been since 1912."For us, that decision wasn't a death sentence. It was a gift of life," Ogburn said. "It's not an urban challenge; it's a call from God. This is where God has placed us."

Unquestionably, heritage and valued memories were factors in those decisions to stay. Many downtown churches are more than 100 years old—some considerably older than that—and heritage can be a strong motivation for remaining in cherished locations, said George Bullard, strategic coordinator for the Columbia Partnership, a church consultancy.

"They have a historic mantle of leadership and are justifiably proud of their heritage," Bullard said.

Their vibrant past often makes them historically significant to their denominations as well, he added, and their sanctuaries may be closely associated with key denominational figures, such as Theodore F. Adams at First Baptist in Richmond or Herschel Hobbs at First Baptist in Oklahoma City.

But alongside—and sometimes trumping—reverence for the past is a clear sense of calling to city centers, these pastors note, and a passion to engage their communities in the 21st century.

"This is where God has called us to be," Wells said regarding South Main Baptist in Houston.

Range of ministries

The churches' sense of call to their community has spawned a breathtaking array of ministries to the marginalized, to refugees, to commuters in downtown office blocks and to nearby apartment dwellers.

• Matching the church's strengths to its neighbors needs was key to developing ministries at First Baptist in Knoxville.

"Most people ask: 'What do they need? What are the problems? What are the solutions?'" Shiell said. "We have tried to ask, 'What are our strengths, and where do they match with a need?'"

The result included The Bridge, a mid-week Bible study for the business community that has developed features of executive coaching for "businesses and executives who want to take the next step in their faith at work"; a mentoring partnership—KidsHope USA—with children at a nearby elementary school; and the nonprofit Heart of Knoxville, which aims to partner with businesses, corporations, foundations and individuals to expand the church's resources for ministry. Last year, Heart of Knoxville served 600 homeless and working poor families, said Shiell. This year it hopes to expand the church's new food co-op.

"We're in the middle of an initiative now called 'Seek the Peace of Knoxville' that will be both a revival and an invitation to relocate downtown," Shiell said.

• In Oklahoma City, First Baptist took a cue from its past to guide ministry in the present. In its century of existence, the church had started 63 new congregations and been actively involved with refugees.

"Part of our task has been to call the church back to those places where God has called us in the past and find similar opportunities today," Ogburn said.

Currently, four congregations in addition to the original one worship in First Baptist's facilities— United Myanmar Baptist Church; New Life Baptist Church, a Hispanic congregation; Sudanese Christian Fellowship; and Convergence Church, an emergent community of faith.

A sixth congregation—All African Baptist Church—is being developed in a partnership with the Ghana Baptist Convention, the national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and its Oklahoma affiliate, and NorthHaven Church in Norman, Okla., a congregation affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

In the 1960s, as Oklahoma City's downtown deteriorated, First Baptist created Good Shepherd Ministries of Oklahoma to distribute food and clothing. It began offering medical services in 1975 and dental treatment in 1980. Seven years ago, Good Shepherd became an independent nonprofit organization, while retaining close ties to First Baptist. Ogburn said the group soon will hear a response to its application for a significant grant from a local foundation which will permit the facility's expansion and the medical clinic to be operated full time.

• In addition to ministry with thousands of homeless men and women on Houston streets, South Main set its sights on the Texas Medical Center and its 50 member institutions, about two miles south of the church.

"We own 20 apartments and coordinate another 100 apartments for people who come to the center for long-term medical care," Wells said. Church members clean the units and assist the families living there temporarily.

The church also discovered an unexpected need among the homeless, he said. When their few possessions were stolen—not uncommon for those living on the streets—they often lost documents necessary to get a job. The church helps them replace the necessary birth certificates and identification cards.

Facilities as God's gifts

Undergirding these churches' ministries are sizable and often architecturally elaborate buildings. Most were built decades ago and require extensive maintenance. But instead of a drain on resources, the churches see their building as gifts which offer unforeseen possibilities.

"God has gifted us with a 180,000-square-foot building," Ogburn said. "The building is a gift from God, but we had to choose to see it that way. You can choose to let a building weigh you down or make it a gift of God."

In Knoxville, First Baptist's 1924 blend of English Renaissance and Romanesque architecture "is what God has given us, and it's gorgeous," said Shiell. "There's nothing like it."

"Having a large building that has generous and big spaces is a tremendous benefit," Hoffman said of Third Baptist's streamlined Gothic building with a distinctive retro neon sign. At 115,000 square feet, Third Baptist "offers potential for revenue as we lease some spaces, including our parking lot, which is a premium value in the city center."

"The sanctuary is breathtaking," he added. "They just don't build worship centers like this anymore. It is in demand as a concert venue, and congregational worship and music is fantastic due to the acoustics."

Those facilities come with a cost, but it's one church leaders agreed they're willing to pay.

"The generation that didn't build the building and care for it doesn't share in the maintenance and upkeep," said Shiell. "So, we're working on developing an endowment for facilities to bridge that gap."

Despite the expense, Wells said of South Main Baptist, "We have a remarkable space, and we can honor God and do kingdom work that we couldn't do without it."

It's that kingdom work which brings the greatest satisfaction, said Ogburn.

"This is the most fun I've ever had in church," he said. "I can't imagine being anywhere else."